23. What Should Graduate Students Know About Clinical Supervision

You've just about had it with grad school! You want to start practicing what you've learned. You want to spend more time with your family, get back to your hobbies, reconnect with your friends. The demands of grad school have kept you apart much too often. But back up....you have to work for 3000 hours under a clinical supervisor?

Yep.

So how should you go about finding that perfect supervisor? What is the step-by-step process?

If you're not too confused, listen in on this episode to get exactly that!

Today, I'm talking about one of the things I get asked about the most.  Navigating the Supervision Search: A Comprehensive Guide for Counseling Graduate Students is out now to provide the blueprint for going from “stuck” to making strides toward finding a supervisor who will become your mentor and friend.

I talk about a lot of myths in this one and even talk about things to beware of, but the tactics I talk about are pure gold for new grads! I also talk about my upcoming free webinar with Dr. Tara Fox April 5 where you can attend via Zoom and get the latest information (and 1 CE) about bridging successfully from grad school to Associate and much more. 

I'm also giving away three months free in the Step it UP membership so listen up to see how to enter (actually when you get the guide you're entered)!

Many people wait for their perfect clinical supervisor to appear out of nowhere. The thing is, unless you start taking action, you'll get what you get. So join me for this fantastic podcast to begin your journey to becoming a professional counselor. Enjoy!

Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Introduction

Kate Walker: This is Dr. Kate Walker with Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses and I’m talking to you grad students, and honestly, I’m probably going to be talking to a few supervisors, too. I mean, this is really how I got started. I design the 40-hour training for licensed mental health providers, LPCs and LMFTs, who want to be supervisors in Texas. I’ve grown my business by designing that course and then providing, of course, tons of resources to supervisors and then I’ve grown to providing those for grad students and seasoned professionals. But really, supervision, clinical supervision, is where I live. That’s where my roots are.

Before you get to the end of the podcast, I’m going to give you information about some free resources, and you’ll see the link in the show notes. You’ll be able to download a guide that’s going to walk you through the process of getting your clinical supervisor. I’m really proud of the guide, it’s Navigating the Supervision Search: A comprehensive guide for counseling graduate students. I’m really not aware of another resource just like this. And I’m going to give you information. We’ve got a great big giveaway going on in March, and April too, we’ve got some great promotions for you guys. 

But what I really want to emphasize today is the importance of finding a supervisor that’s not only a great fit, you know, that you get along with and that you have rapport with, but a supervisor who knows what they’re talking about. Because there are a lot of myths out there that supervisors have and supervisees and that people talk about at the water cooler and in grad classes. And I’ll tell you what, sometimes I hear about these myths when I’m teaching the 40-hour training. Now, granted, my 40-hour training is completely online but it’s super interactive and I read all of the papers and I hear some of the things that licensed, seasoned mental health providers, they have some real misconceptions about what clinical supervision is, what you can and can’t do. 

And this guide is really amazing, I think, because it not only talks about what clinical supervision is, it really tells you, grad student, what to look for. So in this episode today, I’m going to go through the part of the guide that talks about why clinical supervision and what you need to know about clinical supervision. I know that sounds easy peasy but I’m going to touch on things like rules, because believe it or not, not everybody knows the rules or how supervision should go. So hang in there and I’m going to give you a lot of good information and don’t forget the show notes so you can click and get your very own guide.

Alright, let’s go.

What should graduate students know about clinical supervision? Well, number one, it’s a requirement for licensure. In most states, clinical supervision is required for licensure as a professional counselor. This means that after graduating, counselors will need to work under the supervision of a licensed counselor for a certain number of hours before they can apply for their own license. So in Texas, you actually do your initial application right when you graduate, you get your master’s degree, you pass your NCE, there are some things you turn in through snail mail and there are some things that you upload, and we talk about that when I have my guest Dr. Tara Fox. 

She’s going to talk to me on our webinar. She’s going to talk to us April 5th, 5:00 central time, in the webinar, and I will put the link in the show notes. It’s a free webinar. If you’re a graduate student, if you have a class of graduate students, if you’re a professor and you want your students to attend this, have them click the link, they can attend. Dr. Fox is going to tell us all about bridging successfully from graduate school to the LPC associate license in Texas. It’s great information, it’s timely information. By the time this podcast comes out, it’s going to be March 2023, so the information is up to date with the latest rules. 

And it’s important that you understand, graduate students, if you are going to be an LPC or an LMFT, how many hours you need to spend under supervision, how many months you must spend counseling under supervision – it’s different for each license, and if you are another license besides LPC and LMFT, of course you need to consult your licensing boards. And if you’re listening to this from another state, which I hope you are because it’s not just Texans who listen to this podcast, that you check with your licensing rules as well.

What I’m finding is a lot of times I see students take online courses, grad courses in counseling or mental health, some sort of related degree, and the professors in the online school perhaps don’t know exactly what needs to happen for your state. So if you’re taking an online course and you’re located in Texas but your university is somewhere else, I highly encourage you to attend the webinar so you can get the latest and greatest information. Of course, you can always go to the LPC rules at the Behavioral Health Executive Council website, that’s BHEC.com, and you can get that information there as well. But the beauty of a webinar is, of course, you can ask questions and that’s what we really want to encourage when you attend these webinars. You are eligible for a CE. Of course graduate students and associates, you guys don’t need CEs, but if you’re a supervisor and you’re going to watch the webinar – and I hope you do, supervisors, I hope you come to the webinar, yes, you are eligible for at least one hour CE. I can almost guarantee we will go longer, but it will be one CE for supervision and for LPC and LMFT in Texas.

Another thing to understand about supervision is it’s an ongoing process. Counselor supervision isn’t just something that happens during the initial license period. It’s an ongoing process that can help counselors continue to grow and develop their skills throughout their careers. You will stay in contact with your supervisor. This is someone who should become your mentor for the duration of your career and theirs. My mentor, Dr. Judy Detrude, who helped me become the person I am professionally and as a businesswoman and as a course designer, she taught me everything I know about that and I’m still in contact with her and Dr. Chising Lee, who was my LPC and LMFT supervisor, I’m still in contact, we’re great friends. This isn’t just a one-and-done kind of a relationship. Your supervisor will continue to guide and really mold you as a professional if you allow it, if it’s something where you and your supervisor both have rapport and you’re able to talk things out and you’re not keeping things from one another. 

That can be a problem if you don’t feel safe talking to your supervisor and you’re not telling your supervisor everything, so they’re not able to supervise everything. Or if you just think you need to be perfect and you need to appear wonderful to your supervisor, don’t do that, right? Your supervisor is there to help you through things and it will impact the relationship negatively if you aren’t able to be completely transparent and open. And the rewards are so wonderful when that supervisor becomes your lifelong mentor.

The third thing, supervision is a chance to learn from experienced professionals. Working with a supervisor who has more experience in the field can be incredibly valuable for new counselors. Supervisors can offer guidance, feedback, and insights that can help new counselors become more effective in their work. Now, I know it’s tempting to think that hey, you got this degree, you passed those exams, you did those comps, you wrote that thesis, and you know everything there is to know about counseling. 

It’s just not true and here’s why I love you so much grad students – here’s the thing: Google Bloom’s Taxonomy. And what you’ll find with Bloom’s Taxonomy is there are levels. At the very bottom of it, it’s kind of like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It’s a triangle, right? So at the bottom, you demonstrate proficiency by remembering and regurgitating these things on a test, right? You’re able to remember them, you’re able to pass an exam. As you progress up the triangle, though, you have more challenges. But as you pass these challenges, you demonstrate proficiency. 

So you go beyond just remembering and regurgitating. Now you’re analyzing. Now you’re synthesizing information. And ultimately, you’re creating your own counseling style. You’re creating your own counselor identity. And this comes with that very, very important element that supervision is all about, drum roll please: your experience. You must have experience under supervision in order to get comfortable and accrue those hours that will then allow you to start analyzing and creating and synthesizing all of that information and you will grow. You will grow as a counselor as you are working under supervision. And as I mentioned a minute ago, if you’ve got a great supervisor, that’s just a cherry on top, right? And actually, it should be more than that: it should be the entire cake. So let’s talk more about that.

[Ad: Kate Walker Training]

The next thing you need to know about supervision, grad students, is it’s a place for reflection and self-evaluation. Counseling is a demanding and emotionally challenging profession. Regular supervision sessions can provide a space for counselors to reflect on their work, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for growth. This is ongoing. What happens in initial developmental stages, though, grad students, is you’re nervous, you’re worried, you want to make sure you’re doing a great job, and this is normal. This is a very normal anxiety for a developmentally brand new, level one supervisee or new counselor. I mean, even if you have been working in the mental health field for years, let’s say you were a QMHP at another site or a skills trainer or a case manager or perhaps you came from another career, like you were a teacher, or something else where you managed people or you evaluated people or you counseled people or coached people, counseling, when you start, is still going to feel brand new. 

Now, maybe not long, but while you are in those beginning stages, and you remember this – you remember sitting in your supervised internship when you’re with your very first client you’ve ever had and you have trouble hearing, you have trouble understanding your theory and speaking through your theory, wondering where to place your hands, where to look when it’s time to reflect, that’s all very self-centered. It's not the bad way self-centered, it just means that you are not able to really do all of those juggling balls in the air of yourself in session, the client in session, what theory should you say next. It can be complicated.

And so supervision gives you that space to just kind of breathe and go, okay, wait a second, can you listen to this tape and just tell me what you think? Was I doing a good job here? Or here’s the theory that I used with this client but I’ve got to tell you, the client kind of pissed me off and I hate that reaction I’m having in myself and I want to share that with you. That’s what supervision is: it’s that safe space where you can share all of that. Your fears, your pissed off-ness, your confusion, your mess-ups, all of it, right? Because it’s normal, everybody. It is normal for a beginning counselor.

And so when you graduate and you are brand new in supervision, it’s going to feel a little bit like starting over – not much, you’re going to move much faster, especially with the right supervisor, which is why it’s so important that you have these things in mind while you’re shopping. And you are – it’s a buyer beware kind of market. You can have a supervisor in any part of Texas as long as they are licensed and they’ve taken the training and they have the supervisor designation and you can always go to the BHEC website to verify someone’s license. If a supervisor lets their license lapse, it will show up. You will see on the verification exactly if this person has a license or not, so that should be part of your interview, right? 

So when you’re sitting with this person who is possibly going to be your next, or first, supervisor, it’s okay to be picky. It’s okay to use the interview questions that I have in this guide. There are lots of things that you need to make sure of so that it’s a safe space for you to be level one, right? You’re going to grow, you’re going to change, but you need that beginning stage, that safe space for self-reflection and self-evaluation.

Finally, it’s important to find the right supervisor. I think I’ve said this a few times but I’m going to say it again: not all supervisors are created equal and it’s important for counselors to find a supervisor who is a good fit for their needs and learning style. Counselors should look for a supervisor that has experience in their areas of practice, who is supportive and encouraging, and who is willing to provide constructive feedback. Y’all, I know it’s tempting to just find somebody to sign your paperwork so you can upload it, get your associate license, and move on. Don’t do that. Take some time and interview two, three, four people so you really understand everything they have to offer. If you want to work with kids, does your supervisor have experience working with kids? If you want to be trained in EMDR, does your supervisor feel comfortable with that? If you want to have your own self-employed practice, is that something your supervisor has a plan to guide you? You want to make sure there is a safety net around you so that you can make mistakes, you can learn, and you can explore and try new things.

So this has just been a little tidbit of the guide to finding an excellent supervisor. And again, I’m going to post the link in the show notes. The guide is called Navigating the Supervision Search: A comprehensive guide for counseling graduate students. And I want you to really take some time and once you get the guide, go through it, fill it out, there are some prompts where you can do some writing. And then, when you come to the webinar, remember the webinar is happening Wednesday, April 5th at 5pm central time, this is 2023 if you’re listening to this, we have a little bonus for you too. If you register for the guide, if you sign up and opt in and trust us with your email and you can download the guide, we’re going to enter you into a giveaway. 

Grad students, we want to give you three months free in the Step It Up membership. That’s a $150 value. It's wonderful. I put things in there all the time. So for example, there are courses on business, there are courses on technique, there are workshops that you can attend, free tickets for those, and I’ll talk more about that in the outro. Just know that two months, March and April, is devoted to you, grad student. And for you supervisors listening in, and I hope you’re out there supervisors, I hope you’re listening to this, because I have trained some amazing men and women through the 40-hour training that we offer at Kate Walker Training and I know you are out there ready to take on these supervisees and guide them and mentor them and provide that safe space where they can progress and develop and grow and create and analyze and synthesize and all of the things so that eventually, they will become your colleague, because that’s the goal. That’s the beauty. That’s the wonderful thing about being a supervisor. We are literally growing our own colleagues and it’s a wonderful thing. As a counselor educator myself and a supervisor, I enjoyed so much watching my supervisees grow into my colleagues. And I’ll get a text and they’ll ask me questions and I will see them at conferences and we’ll go have a beer. It’s a wonderful relationship that doesn’t ever have to end.

So I really encourage you to get the guide, go through the exercises, look at the interview questions, look at the five things you need to beware of, look at the ways to highlight your own strengths, and go out there and find yourself an amazing supervisor. You’ve got this badass, have a great day!

Okay, by the time this podcast goes live, we will have been running our giveaway for a week; it’s not too late. This is for grad students, it’s in March, and I’m so excited about this. When you enter our giveaway, a couple of things happen. First of all, you’re entered to win three months free in the Step It Up membership which is just amazing and it’s $150 in value and we’re giving it to you free for three months but you have to enter to get the giveaway. Now, how do you enter? Well, I want to make that worth your while, so when you enter, you automatically get my guide, I’m so proud of this guide. It’s called Navigating the Supervision Search: A comprehensive guide for counseling graduate students. I’ve really tried to pack this guide with information that graduate students need to know about clinical supervision. The guide has five things graduate counseling students should know about clinical supervision, five things to watch out for as graduate students interview their potential supervisor, ten interview questions that you can ask your potential supervisor, and I’ve included ways that you, grad student, can really highlight your strengths when you are in that interview with your potential clinical supervisor.

Now, how do you get these great resources? Well, of course I’m going to put the links in our show notes, but you can also go to my Instagram, Kate Walker Training, and when you click the link, you will be taken to the opt-in page. You opt-in, bam, you automatically get the guide, then you’re entered to win the three months free of the Step It Up membership. But wait, there’s more! I want to make sure that you know about the upcoming webinar with the amazing Dr. Tara Fox. Dr. Fox is a counselor educator at Midwestern State University and she knows everything about helping graduate students bridge from grad school to LPC associate and she has agreed to be on a webinar with me Wednesday, April 5th at 5pm central time. Now, you’ve got to register if you want to go to this webinar, but don’t worry, I will put the link in the show notes. You can also go to my website, KateWalkerTraining.com and click and get your free ticker there as well. 

That’s Dr. Tara Fox on Wednesday, April 5th, 5pm central time, and she’ll be talking to you, grad students. And you know what supervisors? It’s okay if you join us, too. She’s going to be talking about how to successfully bridge from grad student to associate, so I hope you join us.

[Outro]