Supervision - Information for Practitioner & Client

1. What is Supervision?

Philip Armstrong (2003)* defines professional supervision as the ‘process whereby a therapist can discuss:

With a qualified professional supervisor, who is usually senior to the supervisee, with the view to resolving professionally orientated issues with the intension of helping to further evolve in a positive manner as a therapist.

There are different forms of supervision. The ABNLP Inc has decided to adopt the Professional Supervision model which covers four key areas between supervisee and supervisor.

1. Evaluation (including self review, quality assurance, best practice, identifying risks for supervisee and clients, client follow up, debriefing).
2. Administration (including policy and procedures, accounting, record keeping).
   
3. Education/career progression (including modelling/coaching, professional development).
   
4. Support (including advocating, challenging, confronting, empowering and affirming).
   

As supervision is a new process for most NLP Practitioners, greater emphasis will be placed on evaluation and support in the initial stages of supervision. These two areas are commonly referred to as clinical supervision.

Supervision is a quality control method which help promotes best practice standards. Even experienced Practitioners and Trainers need supervision and are advised to receive it.

2. What Professional Supervision is NOT.

• Professional supervision is not having someone sit in the room with you watching a client session.
• Professional supervision is also not the minute dissection of every single client you see. This is a tedious, unhelpful and disrespectful process.
• Professional Supervision is not two practitioners having a casual chat.
• Professional supervision is not a substitute or a forum for undertaking your own personal therapy, although a supervisor may gently highlight any consistent themes that need addressing at this level.

3. How often should supervision occur?

The ABNLP requires a minimum of 15 hours supervision per year. A general rule of thumb is that you need 1 hour of supervision for every 20 hours of client work.

4. Is supervision confidential?

Confidentiality exists in supervision to the same level that it does in a client/practitioner relationship.

5. Who are the ABNLP supervisors and how were they accredited?

See the Find a Clinical Supervision for ABNLP supervisors.

ABNLP supervisors are required to have:
i) 5 years NLP clinical experience in NLP with a minimum qualification of NLP Master Practitioner.
ii) Successful completion of the Australian Counselling Association Professional Supervision Training program.

6. If I am an NLP Master Practitioner, can I claim supervision provided by another supervisor who is not on the list?

Yes. Provided the person is a trained Professional Clinical Supervisor and is also trained in NLP at a minimum of Master Practitioner level training with 5 years or more clinical NLP experience. Please check with the ABNLP Inc. prior to lodging your forms. A professional Clinical Supervisor is required for at least 10 hours per month - this can be in group or individual format, on the phone or face to face. The additional hours can be made up of peer supervision, practice groups etc. Being mentored by your NLP Trainer, if they are not a Clinical Supervisor is considered peer supervision.

7. Why is supervision important for me as an NLP Master Practitioner? It seems expensive and I feel I don’t need it.

To a large extent the practice of NLP is unregulated. There are currently no uniform accreditation processes required to achieve the level of NLP Practitioner or Master Practitioner certification.

Many NLP Practitioners embark on clinical practice without any period of internship or probationary practice. This places some practitioners in a precarious position.

Aside from this, clinical and professional supervision is fast becoming an industry standard in the allied fields of psychology, counselling, social work, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. Additionally many students of these disciplines can be required to complete anything up to 1000 hours and beyond of an unpaid student internship in order to receive their professional qualifications. There is no such requirement currently in place for NLP and the length of training undertaken in NLP is in most cases much less than these allied fields.

The ABNLP Inc seeks to align the practice of NLP within a best practice framework. From this position we can build a foundation whereby we can start the process of lobbying for various practitioner and community benefits.

The ABNLP is aware that there are experienced practitioners, Master Practitioners and Trainers of NLP that have never received formal supervision.

Supervision is not just for those who are new to the field. ‘Limiting habits’ can form in even the most experienced practitioner and without a ‘feedback’ mechanism the practitioner may be none the wiser. This can in turn impact on client service and care. At the same time a practitioner may be providing exceptional service and not consciously aware of these skills or how to develop them.

8. What are the benefits of supervision?

• Critical incident stress debriefing (eg after a crisis session, suicidal client, disclosure of abuse etc).
• Monitoring around self care and client loads.
• Support around ethical and legal obligations.
• Skills ‘top ups’ if needed.
• Business and administrative mentoring.
• Clinical Supervision and direction.
• External motivation and support.
• Feedback from an accredited professional.

9. I live interstate or in a regional area. Is phone supervision ok?

Phone supervision with an ABNLP supervisor is approved by the ABNLP Inc. Most individual supervisors will require some face to face contact with you.

10. I currently attend a group tutorial/focus group. Can I count this as supervision?

Generally No. Educational classes are not considered supervision unless they provide a genuine forum for attendees to look at clinical, administrative and industry issues. For these groups to be recognised as supervision there must be 12 or less attendees, an NLP Trainer with 5 years or more clinical experience leading the group and a solid clinical focus within the group.

*Philip Armstrong is the National Manager of The Australian Counselling Association and consultant to Armstrong Counselling and Consultancy Services. He runs a Professional Supervision training program