What is management like in counseling and why is it important? Aventis’s counseling courses will cover it in detail, but here is a short article. Supervision in counselling is important if you want to become a mental health practitioner. This is done when a counsellor in training uses the services of another counsellor or psychotherapist to review the way they work with their clients. Many reputed professional counselling memberships, such as the Singapore Association of Counselling, require supervision to ensure all counsellors in practice are keeping their skills up-to-date and that they work in a safe and ethical way.
When counselors talk about “supervision,” they usually mean “clinical” (also known as “casework”) supervision. As a student, you would typically see your supervisor for 1.5 hours after 12 hours of client work or after one month (depending on which comes first). It is important to keep records of when you see your supervisor and for how long; without this, the client hours you have accumulated might not be counted by your awarding body.
3 Main areas of Supervision
Supervision falls into three main areas, with ethics always being at the forefront of both the supervisors’ and counselors’ minds:
- Formative (i.e. growth-based): the supervisor shares their experience to teach the counsellor.
- Normative (i.e. monitoring-based): the supervisor asks the counsellor to account and justify their work.
- Restorative (i.e. support-based): the supervisor offers support if the counsellor is struggling with an ethical issue or an aspect of their practice.
Supervision is not the place for the counselor to obtain their own therapy, although sometimes issues in a counselor’s life might impact their ability to give full attention to the client.
Aventis School of Management partnered with the Centre for Psychotherapy for supervision in counselling. Our masters in counselling and graduate diploma students get to enjoy professional supervision in counselling services at an affordable rate. The centre offers an effective learning journey through Client Contact Hours and Counselling Supervision Hours.
- Students will learn to apply Skills through Guidance in a relaxed, non-judgemental environment.
- Skills Based – Students feel comfortable using skills they have gained through their studies.
- Personal Growth Supervision Model, where supervision is geared towards the intrapersonal growth of the student.
- Supervisees will get to learn, understand and practise appropriate Counsellor behaviours.
- Supervisees may experience enhanced self-awareness.
- Build the Autonomy and degree of independence of the Supervisee.
The students have been employed by the Court, Prisons, MOE, MSF, IMH, FSCs, and International Schools. They have contributed effectively to the emotional and psychological needs of the community.
One of the toughest challenges a student faces is gaining experience in counselling. Along with counseling experience, a student should be able to evaluate issues within himself/herself before contacting clients.
Counselling Experience and Counselling Supervision are available at the Centre for Psychotherapy for students seeking Client Contact Hours. You will be supervised, guided through skills and their application, and perform self-evaluation under supervision.
Contact Aventis School of Management to find out more about our respective counselling programmes!
Check out our other articles, 5 Myths About Psychology.
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Supervision in Counselling