Supervision in Counseling Fieldwork (Internship)
In order to obtain a Substance Abuse Counselor – In Training Certificate, a student must complete a set amount of classroom experience and some fieldwork experience, hours based on the state the student resides. Classroom work is straightforward; do assignments, listen to lectures, get good grades, and it is done. Fieldwork is a bit more complicated with many more variables involved. The experience gained from fieldwork is based on the setting, supervisor, and how you enter and maintain your attitude throughout the fieldwork experience.
Roles of Supervisors
First, the student should understand the role and responsibilities of the supervisor. The supervisor holds the roles of being a teacher, model evaluator, mentor, counselor, and advisor. The supervisor should be focused on teaching you how to be an effective counselor, and at times state things explicitly. One thing my supervisor did before my first group was explain to me that you should never hand a client a box of tissues. The box should be visible and accessible to the clients, but if you hand them a tissue, your body language is saying, “You’re feeling some strong emotions that are making me feel uncomfortable so please put yourself back together so I can be comfortable again”. This explicit teaching was important for me to be prepared for how to react when a client expresses emotions via crying or sniffling. While the counselor is teaching, it is reasonable to expect him or her to act in congruence with what he or she says, and in doing so, is then modeling proper behavior. After my supervisor shared the tissue information with me, we had a group in which very personal and emotional things were being talked about. My supervisor followed what he said earlier by not handing any client a tissue even though social etiquette (in the “real world”) would expect such a response.
The supervisor is also an evaluator, mentor, and advisor. Either the supervisor should be giving constant feedback publically, or privately, about the things you say or do so that you can stay on a course that will lead to improved counseling. Feedback should not be mistaken as being critical all the time; it may be critical at times, but should also be acknowledging the good things you do. Proper evaluation, a good personality match, and open communication will make the supervisor feel like a mentor and advisor. My supervisor gives me feedback after every group I observe and contribute to with him, and my colleague does the same when I observe her groups. Sometimes it is critical, but I have found that most of the time it is constructive and positive. Often my supervisor will say things along the lines of “I would have done…but the way you did it was insightful too” or “I understand what you were attempting to do but the client didn’t seem receptive, what do you feel about that”. both cases make me feel comfortable taking risks and contributing to the group because no matter what I say, I know it will help me learn because I won’t be “reprimanded” if I am wrong, I will be prompted to come up with why I said it, why it didn’t work, and how I could respond differently in the future. Both of the counselors I observe use this method of feedback even though they use two different counseling styles. My learning experience is enhanced because of the supervisor’s effective use of evaluation.
Finally, the last role of the supervisor is to be your counselor, to a certain extent. The supervisor should not be working with you on all of your deep personal issues, which would be a dual relationship. Nevertheless, the supervisor should help you gain self-awareness, and help you cope with the struggles of the job. The second client I had observed in a one on one session had a story that had struck a nerve in me due to similar experiences I have had with friends and family. I told the counselor who conducted the session the next day and she gave me feedback on how to handle cases like that. She explained that to gain self-awareness I should note the first things that come to mind in those sessions so that I know if I am becoming biased. All of my colleagues have helped me cope with the struggles of the job including coping with setbacks in a client, difficult clients, and relapses. This is mostly about learning techniques for self-care.
The responsibilities of supervisors are similar to what was mentioned already, along with making sure the student maintains confidentiality, and is competent when he or she does lead groups or interact with clients.
Styles of Supervision
There are different ways for supervisors to do their jobs. Some styles are as follows:
Sharing Information: more conversational and informal. One of my colleagues uses this style when interacting with me and this allows us to both learn and grow in our counseling process.
Content-Oriented: This is when the supervisor is focused on what you said and what you should say in certain situations. My main supervisor rarely uses this style; he only does so if it is important for the information to be explicit.
Process-Oriented: This is when the supervisor is focused on why you acted, why the clients reacted, and why decisions were made. This approach is more self-reflective and looks toward thought processes that you made to arrive at a decision. My counselor uses this approach quite often, and it leads to a better understanding of how to counsel in the future by noting positives and negatives.
Emphasis on Helper’s Dynamics: this is when the supervisor focuses on traits of the student and its impact on the client.
Emphasis on Client’s Dynamics: this is when the supervisor focuses on the traits of the client that evoked a response from the student.
Both dynamics are emphasized equally in my internship as sometimes the client is unique and that dynamic is a primary concern for feedback, other times, and the counselor’s dynamic can elicit a response from a client, and that is a primary concern of the feedback. It is important to know that wither the client nor counselor may be “wrong” in the situation for there to be a concern for feedback, sometimes it’s just notes as “that client has…in his past. So now it is noted that using language like…will make him defensive”.
The style of supervision is influenced mainly by the supervisors personality (as well as personality match with the student), the supervisor’s willingness to be a supervisor, his or her professional and educational ability to be a supervisor, and the time availability that the supervisor has to dedicate to the student. Obviously if a supervisor is busy, then the style will be more explicit and direct as there will be limited time to walk through a thought process.
I have three colleagues that give me feedback on my work, which gives me a great opportunity to have multiple perspectives. One colleague is more collaborative with me and we both learn new things, but we are both early in our career. My direct supervisor gives me feedback in a content or process orientation depending on his time availability. He is often busy so our meetings are more direct and to the point. I like this because I get to know more explicitly what to do in the future (whether it is the same as I did or different). The third colleague is a LPC and has a lot of experience in different areas of counseling. She supervises me with a process-oriented style because we have the time, and our personalities match enough to have a conversation that goes a bit deeper, as well as having the time to go deeper. Together, all three styles benefit me the most because I get a taste of all different feedback types and ample time for self-reflection. I feel that it is more important for the personality fit to be in line with the style than anything else is because if the personalities are too different neither of you will want to take the time to process information. In addition, my direct supervisor is more direct because that is his personality, I accept that, and like that, he is direct, so I utilize his personality. The worse way to supervise, I would think, is to try and use a style that disagrees with the your, or the students personality. I like implicit and explicit feedback so I really benefit from the various personalities that exist in my internship. I would not choose one or the other because where one lacks, the opposite makes up for.
How to Experience the Most
In the end, the supervisor can only do so much to provide a student with a good internship experience. A lot of the responsibility for a good experience falls on the student. The following are great ways to use supervision in fieldwork effectively.
Be clear with your expectations: Let your supervisor know exactly what you want to get from your experience, including what you want to do. When I had my interview, they shared clearly, their expectations of me if I were to be an intern. These coincided with my expectations of being an intern. For myself, it was more important that my supervision is individualized and I have to do things, as I was ready. I believe people have unique strengths and learn at different paces, so I wanted an internship that would let me do things as I became ready for them. My internship site believes that until you do something, there is only so much you can learn, and since I just came from a program, they knew I “know” what I am doing; it is a matter of actually doing it. Therefore, they were ok with me speaking in group right away, and wanted me to lead educational groups my second week after I got familiar with the clients and how things run. This helped me not limit myself because of my anxiety, which I mention later.
Be Assertive about your experience: When you want to do something, or sit in on something…say something! This goes along the lines of ask and you shall receive. I wanted to participate in a specific client’s treatment due to numerous factors. Instead of hoping, they would suggest it, I asked the client’s counselor if I could sit in on his one on one sessions. She confirmed with the client that it was ok, and now I am following that particular case. This is important because some cases will spark your interest. Now is the time to figure out why it sparks your interest. There may be times where your interest can create a counter-transference situation. The time of your fieldwork is the best time to find where your vulnerabilities are so that you can gain self-awareness. For myself, the client I wanted to follow had just about as many factors that a client could have that would make me too sympathetic to his situation. As I work with his counselor, I am able to reflect on why I want to do the things I do (give him assignments, focus on a particular topic). I have found that although there is a chance for counter-transference, my first instinct is to do what I think is best for him, not what I wish would have been done for the people in my life that he reminds me of.
Take advantage of being a student: There is no need to convince your supervisor that you are perfect at every task or know every piece of knowledge out there. The supervisor knows you are a student. Be honest when you do not know something, or how to incorporate a skill. The supervisor can help you gain knowledge and skills. If you make the supervisor believe that you know something that you do not, you are not only putting a client’s recovery in danger (by being incompetent in the specific skills if you use it with a client) but also you are also cheating yourself. The best way to learn is to ask questions and ask for help. One thing I struggle with is when clients keep talking in group, but they are not actually contributing to group (like cyclical talking) or are just playing devil’s advocate. I know in class they say we should control that, and we even practiced how to in class. However, I learned that it is different when working with actual clients. After I had the difficult client, I asked my supervisor and colleagues for feedback. They were willing to discuss with me on how to respectfully keep the session focused. I was anxious about asking for help, but I know that is something I should struggle with since I am new. So accept that you are new to and will need “refreshers” on what you learned, or simply a situation that was not discussed in class. There are only so many scenarios you can learn in class.
Accept anxiety as part of it: The last two ways I stated of making your internship the best it can be seem intimidating. It is hard to think that you should tell your boss what you want, or to ask your boss for help. Anxiety is part of the experience. Anxiety means you care what you do and that you do not want to do something that would negatively affect a client. That is good; after all, your goal IS to help. This anxiety is healthy, so accept it as that. Work through your anxiety knowing that it is normal, so that you can learn. If you let your anxiety stop you from learning, then your internship will not be beneficial. The anxiety will not go away just because your internship is done. The best way to take care of your anxiety is to build a solid relationship with your supervisor and colleagues. I was anxious the first week or two of my internship; but once I had a relationship with my supervisor and colleagues, I was more comfortable talking to them about uncomfortable things like my shortcomings and mistakes. I found that many of the issues I had to talk to them about, they needed help with too.
Wrapping it Up
Your internship is a great opportunity but it is not as consistent as classes were. Supervisors have different styles, have different responsibilities than your teacher, and you have to be more active on the spot. Nevertheless, understanding what your supervisor is required to do, and the different styles of supervision, will help you understand why your supervisor acts in a particular way. It is comforting to know (at least for me) that unlike classes, your internship is largely influenced by your own behavior. In the end, be reasonably confident with your abilities and get help where you are not confident. This is your time to learn and you can control what you learn. The opportunities are almost endless!
Have a PHENOMENAL Day!
