Coming Alongside Supervisees: Introducing the Skillset of Companioning to Counselor Supervision

Robert Wolfelt (2005) introduced the idea of companioning into the field of grief counseling. Companioning could also be utilized as a skillet within counseling supervision. As supervision is an essential element of counseling, integrating this skillset would be beneficial to the counseling profession. The topic of companioning and its 11 tenets are first explored and then placed within the context of counseling supervision as a useful and valuable skillset for working with supervisees. The skillset is then explored through various existing models of supervision and illustrated through a case study. Finally, implications for supervisors and educators, as well as future research within the counseling profession, are included.

Narrating Supervision to Track Counselor Development: A Qualitative Content Analysis

The authors analyzed the narrative writings of four counselors-in-training in practicum using directed content analysis. Developmental themes corresponded to current theories of counselor development. Narratives and supervisor responses are sequentially provided to aid new counselors and supervisors in understanding the complexities of counselor developmental and counselor supervision.

Experiential Counselor Supervision for Rehabilitation Counselors-in-Training

Background:Preprofessional training for rehabilitation counselors necessarily includes experiential components designed to develop the clinical skills of trainees. Though there are a broad range of supervision models and modes of delivery available, thorough descriptions of supervisory practices are rare, particularly for existential and experiential approaches.Objective:The purpose of this article is to describe an approach to experiential rehabilitation counselor supervision (ERCS) which orients counselors-in-training toward heightened awareness of the clinical environment and being fully present within their counselor–client interactions. Within this existential approach, the depth of focus on the interpersonal counseling experience is offered as a counterbalance to an overemphasis on technical proficiency and procedural fidelity.Framework:The ERCS process exposes students to counseling and supervision in intensified experiential forms within: (a) the counseling session, (b) individual supervision, and (c) group supervision. The supervision format and mode of trainee observation of the counseling session may vary, though in each case, the focus is on awareness and presence above techniques. During individual supervision, the emphasis on awareness is maintained, though precedence is given to supervisee anxiety, supervisee countertransference, and parallel process. In group supervision, trainee and group process dynamics may initially escalate anxieties, but this format opens opportunities for insight through sharing of experiences, facilitated feedback, and activation of therapeutic factors.Conclusion:The ERCS approach is intended to emphasize the primacy of relational components of counseling and to promote interpersonal learning that will be useful for trainees in their direct client work in internship and future employment.

DISCRIMINATION INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENTAL SUPERVISION MODEL

Counselor supervision is important for the development of future counselors and for client safety. Supervision is a process that provides monitoring, training, consultation, and feedback to help with counselors’ development, skill, and competencies. Therefore, the purpose of this manuscript is to present the Discrimination Integrated Developmental Supervision Model (DIDSM), which is an integration of Bernard’s (1997) Discrimination process model and Stoltenberg and Delworth’s (1987) Integrated Developmental Model. The author will also discuss how the following DIDSM tenets are essential to counselor supervision: (a) the supervisory relationship, (b) modeling, (c) feedback, and (d) the awareness of self and others.