Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses

81 Ethics in Supervision: Navigating Financial and Professional Responsibilities as an LPC Supervisor

May 10, 2024 • Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor • Season 4 • Episode 81

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Are ethical practices and financial acumen at the core of your supervisory role? Join me, Dr. Kate Walker, as we navigate the intersection of ethics and money in the critical task of supervision. Discover how to steer your supervisees through the complexities of clinical work financially, from understanding the ins and outs of taxes to developing effective marketing materials. This episode is an indispensable resource for supervisors eager to mentor with integrity, ensuring that their supervisees are not only following the rules but also embracing best practices in all financial aspects of their profession.

Tune in as we tackle the challenges of supervisory financial management with actionable advice and proven strategies. Learn how federal poverty standards can provide a fair benchmark for sliding fee scales and uncover the delicate timing of when to start charging for supervision as your supervisees reach financial sustainability. Whether you're fostering a new supervisee's growth or guiding an experienced clinician, this conversation is packed with insights to ensure ethical stewardship and financial responsibility. Get ready for a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of supervision where ethics and money harmoniously coexist.

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.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. All right, I'm Dr Kate Walker and today I am talking about the ethical implications of money. Specifically, this is for supervisors. So I like to devote at least one of these trainings specifically to supervisors, because y'all are my people get trained to do the job and, whether you've taken my training or you've taken someone else's training, this is information you have to know because and I hear this all the time you know, kate, show me in the rules where this is Well, sometimes I can and sometimes I can't, because it's not there A lot of responsibility for supervision is shifted to supervisors where there used to be a law, for example, there used to be a rule I say law and rule interchangeably sometimes but there used to be a rule for LPC supervisors that they actually for associates they had to get their site approved by the LPC board.

Speaker 1:

So if an associate wanted to change sites, they had to submit paperwork, wait for that paperwork to get approved and in the meantime, they might lose the job opportunity or it might take a long, long time. So, for good reason, the LPC board got rid of that requirement back in 2019, I think you know you didn't have to have your new site approved. Well, they still they meaning associates still must track hours per site and you, the supervisor, you kind of need to know where your supervisee is accruing all of these hours, right? You've heard the horror stories about well, they were over here accruing hours. I didn't know about it. So lots and lots of reasons for supervisors to track these things, even when the rule is gone.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to talk about things having to do with the ethical implications of money and supervision, and I'm going to relate it to rules where they exist and best practices where they do not. So I'm happy to see questions. Remember the best way to contact me with questions? You can tag me in our Facebook group, in the Step it Up group. You can also tag me in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, if you're listening to this as a podcast replay. You can tag me on Instagram. You can tag me on Facebook, and wherever you tag me, I will try to answer the question and if I don't have the answer which happens a lot I'll figure out how to get that answer. So I'm going to refer to my notes here.

Speaker 1:

Ethical issues are things that can get our supervisees in hot water. When it comes to money are pretty much the same things that can happen or get all of us in hot water when it comes to money, right, if we mishandle money, if we don't report our income for taxes, if we aren't tracking write-offs, I mean, these are all things that can get anybody who owns a business in ethical hot water. So I wanted to be sure that I focused on not just supervisees who operate their own practice, because you know they're allowed to do that in Texas. I wanted to focus on things that you know maybe I don't know, didn't really pertain to that, but it could be you know, a supervisee in any setting. So the first one I came up with actually was the one where, if they don't track their income for taxes so let's say, they operate their own private practice, they're not tracking for taxes or, even worse, they're not saving it for taxes. Right, they're an LLC, they're supposed to pay quarterly taxes. They don't do it. Well, you know, good news, bad news moment. It says specifically in the LPC rules that we are responsible for clinical work that our supervisees do. So that's not business work, that's clinical work.

Speaker 1:

Now, most of the supervisors I've talked to and we had a panel discussion on this back in January in the Texas Supervisor Coalition Monthly Consultation Group where we talked about best practices like what are people doing who are out there supervising supervisees in private practice? Because there has to be a conversation, right? So, for example, let's say you are going to supervise this supervising and you sit down and you go over a contract and an orientation and you let them know hey, one of the things that I'm going to supervise is your website copy. And if you listen to the episode about paperwork, you need to update in 2024. I talked about that. Right, your website copy is paperwork in a way, because folks read it. It has to be up to date. It has to be reflect your scope of practice, not just optimized to get the most hits and rank high in Google.

Speaker 1:

So if you sat with your supervisee and you had a discussion and you said I will be supervising that then it's not going to come to us. Then your supervisee won't be surprised, right, they're going to know. You're going to ask to see their website. You're going to ask to see their marketing copy. You're going to ask to see all of those things because of the ethical implications for their clinical practice. Well, if you haven't had a conversation about taxes, for example, because in your mind, hey, that's not a clinical activity, I don't need to discuss that. And then your supervisee gets slammed with a $10,000 IRS bill and they come to you and they say you know, why didn't you tell me?

Speaker 1:

Well, here's the ethical impact. Right, that's going to impact the supervisory relationship and remember, supervisor, you're responsible for that relationship. No, I don't expect you to be magical and know everything. I just expect you to listen to stuff like this podcast or this training so you can ask questions, because these are the questions I get asked. Or you know, I'll get a situation. Somebody wants to consult with me and they'll say you know, my supervisee's angry with me because I didn't tell them to withhold or save more taxes and I didn't think I had to do that. Well, you don't right, and I hope you hear me say that According to the rules, that's not a clinical activity. But if it's something that you need to discuss with your supervisee in order for there to be no misunderstanding, right, that's the important part.

Speaker 1:

The ethical implications happen when your angry supervisee starts shopping for other supervisors because they feel that you didn't tell them what you should have told them or they thought you should have told them. So end of the story is, it can be an ethical issue. If you haven't broached it in your contract or, I would recommend, in your orientation, especially for those supervisees who are in, who have their own, not in, sorry, let me say that again, for supervisees who own their own practice. Now I'm going to shift gears. Let's talk about supervisees who, let's say, work in an agency, or they work in another private practice, or they work actually let's yeah, let's make this just a different setting. They don't own their private practice.

Speaker 1:

Well, if they raise the fee for a client, they must inform that client in writing, right? Because it's part of the informed consent where fees are first mentioned. So when the client agrees and they sign their name and they say, yes, I want to have you as my counselor, I want to enter into a counseling relationship with you, they are also agreeing to a fee. And this is one of those things it does say in the rules If you are going to change the fee for services, you must inform that client in writing. And I've heard all kinds of things like well, can I text them? I mean, I don't know you got to do you. I just know that if I'm a client and I miss your text that's going to raise my rate 50 bucks. I'm not going to be happy with that. So, as the supervisor, you have to think in terms of what could go wrong here, right? So, helping your supervisee understand that if they're working in a practice that gives them that liberty to set their own rate and they decide everybody else in the practice is charging $150 an hour and I only charge $100, I need to raise my rate. It becomes an ethical issue if they raise that rate without informing the client in writing.

Speaker 1:

Another ethical issue that has come to my attention you know, in the rules it states that you can only charge for services that are rendered. Okay, we know that makes sense, right? Well, I've seen a lot of coaching models where they're charging for packages. So you have a package of 10 counseling sessions and again, I don't know right or wrong with this. I don't know the ethics of this right. I'm going to talk about my concern here in a second right, because if your supervisee says you know what I can offer these packages and the client pays for, let's say, three sessions up front, and then you know we just renew them, right, seems OK, at least at first glance. Well, the ethical issue comes when that client stops coming, right? So let's say they do use two of their three sessions in their package. Helping your supervisee understand, they now have money for services that were never rendered, so are they able to refund that money? Were they responsible enough to have that money set aside in an account, not to spend it or save it or do anything with it, but so that when that client only shows up for one session and never comes back, are they refunding that money? Right, they've got to give the money back because services were never rendered. So these are different business models and it's okay as far as I know. I mean, y'all push back here. I'm not really sure, but I do know that it becomes an ethical issue if we're hanging on to money for services that we never performed. So I'd love to hear your feedback on that.

Speaker 1:

Another ethical issue Hold on, I'm going to cough there. Another ethical issue is kind of along the same lines, and that is providing a sliding scale for clients. Right, at first glance sounds like a wonderful idea, right? I think it is wonderful. So teaching your supervisee how to provide a sliding fee scale to their clients in an ethical fashion is definitely a supervision issue. Why? Well, because if you offer a sliding fee scale, kind of based on how that person looks or what they're driving or what they're wearing or what kind of shoes they have on, and your supervisees thinking, well, they can afford this or they right, no, no, no, no, that's, that is unethical. We don't do that. So having a standard and if you've ever heard me teach or sat in a presentation of mine, I talk about using federal poverty standards. They're updated annually, they're super easy to Google and they help set a just, positive, unequivocal standard. So, for a family of one, up to a family of six, what is an annual income that would designate this client as falling below federal poverty standards? And then you can ask for some kind of evidence, you know, pay stub or bank account snapshot or something like that. But teaching your supervisees an ethical way of implementing a sliding fee scale, that is a supervision strategy. That's a whole supervision lesson as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1:

In fact, all of these could be supervision activities beyond the orientation, right? So if you're thinking about developmentally, right, you've got a level one supervisee. What do you need them to know right off the bat, having to do with money, to avoid ethical missteps, right? It's sort of like that list that I talk about when you have books that you want your associate to read, so they hit the ground running, like their first client who is surviving infidelity, their first client who is suffering with addiction, right, their first client who has some codependency issues, right, you want them to be able to hit the ground running. So maybe you have a list of resources, so it's kind ofency issues, right, you want them to be able to hit the ground running, so maybe you have a list of resources. So it's kind of like that, right, think about in your orientation, in that first month, the first four hours of supervision, the basic, basic things you would teach a supervisee so they could manage their money ethically. Then think, okay, what about developmental level two, right In that honeymoon phase, when you know they may want to quit their job and go start their own practice or not.

Speaker 1:

Honeymoon phase, the honeymoon is over phase, right. Or they're striving for autonomy and they're coming to you with new business ideas and business plans and you're thinking, oh, have we had the money? Talk, it's time to have the money talk. So you have a couple of supervision activities to help them research and understand things like taxes, sliding fee scales, packages, how to make sure you have an account set aside to refund money, or whatever. But making sure that you're answering your supervisees question, not just coming down like a sledgehammer, because, no, that could lead to unethical things. I mean, they're people, they want to go have a business and they want to earn a living and they want to do good work.

Speaker 1:

So, maybe taking the time to really educate and understand these business practices yourself, or if you think, wow, you know what, I really don't know much about this I think my supervisee would be better served taking I don't know, a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course or something like that.

Speaker 1:

You can offer resources as a supervisor so they are acting ethically when it comes to supervision or handling money while they're under supervision. So what I wanted you to hear today let me just wrap it up. There are things that we supervise that we maybe don't have to, things like taxes, things that we just want to make sure we're mentoring our supervisee or at least we're talking about it with them. If it's beyond our scope of expertise, right, like I don't know anything about taxes, I'm happy to answer questions or give you resources. So having that conversation, understanding that, changing fees without notifying a client in writing is against the rules. And offering packages may be a super cool business model for coaches, but recognizing there are things having to do with our rules that you must adhere to if that client gives you a bunch of money and you don't deliver the services.

Speaker 2:

Hey, dr Walker, I have a question, so this is my first time coming in. I just wanted to thank you, so I'm walking around with my laptop. So, basically, I have a new supervisee and they were working a full time job before coming to me. Right when they were hired. Their full time job I guess it dissolved, the business dissolved or what have you. So their only source of income, as far as what I know, is based on the clients that they're seeing through my practice, and so I have them doing some admin work that I'm paying them for, of course, to kind of supplement, since they are building their caseload.

Speaker 2:

So I guess I'm wondering how do supervisors do it? As far as when a supervisee is building up their caseload? As far as payment for supervision, because I told her I wasn't going to charge her for supervision because it doesn't make sense. She would be paying me everything that she earned to some extent. You know what I'm saying, so I wanted to know what would be, I guess, the best practice. And then, when is it a good time to say, ok, now that you're sustainable, you know you're able to. You know you have about 20, 30 clients, I guess.

Speaker 2:

Now you're able to pay me for supervision. I guess I'm wondering what that looks like.

Speaker 1:

Well, first thing I want to do, I know that there's an episode out there, a podcast episode, about specific business plans for supervisors. So I'm going to, but I'll take you through just some you know ideas that I have. So one of the things I talk about is sort of this you know, you pay me, then I pay you, then you pay me, kind of back and forth, back and forth. So if you're paying your supervisee, then I would incorporate your fee into that. So if you plan on paying themisee, then I would incorporate your fee into that. So if you plan on paying them $100, let's say, but you know your supervision fee is $70, then only pay them $30, right, Make that supervision kind of come out of that payment, right.

Speaker 2:

Right right.

Speaker 1:

The other thing is bartering. So you know, I call this the Ann's Place model. And you know, tax attorney, of course, before you do anything, you want your supervisee to let's I call it a donation. Right, if they want to donate, say, 12 direct hours to your practice, and in return for those 12 direct hours you provide free supervision. You know, put that in writing as a separate document, you know, apart from the contract, and that doesn't, that doesn't hinder them from finding full time employment, right?

Speaker 1:

You're not sort of saying yeah, you know, work for me. I'm never going to pay you, but you'll have free supervision, right. So, encouraging them, no, no, no, go find, work, go find. And then you do want them to work a full. You know caseload in your practice, right, which is one. Thank you for doing that. I think that's a wonderful opportunity. Then we could kind of go back to the first thing I said, which is okay you're paying them for their services. Withdraw your supervision from that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I guess I would. It does make sense and I would. I think that would be the best bet. I guess it would just be one either me encouraging them to find something supplemental. They have not complained as far as like, oh, I don't have any money, or nothing like that, but I I'm, you know, being of course empathetic and also understanding of the situation until it changes. So I guess the idea would be to potentially encourage them to get something supplemental while they're building up their hours with me as far as their client hours, and then, once they're pretty set you know, sustainable there, then take that fee out of their final payment and then give them their final paycheck.

Speaker 1:

Basically, and one final thing is you're saying that this is coming to my mind. Just make sure, crystal, that you put this in writing you know, so it's not a surprise. Like well, I didn't know you wanted me to build up a clientele, well, I didn't know that you wanted me to.

Speaker 1:

you know, get another job Right. Just make sure that they understand the trajectory, including a timeline Like, okay, by three months. We haven't done this. We've got to revisit this, you know, because maybe you don't want to be their supervisor for 60 months if they're only going to see a couple of clients.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you don't want to be their supervisor for 60 months if they're only going to see a couple of clients. Yeah, absolutely. It wouldn't be feasible for either one of us so thanks for having this. I'll see you next time. Good, all right. See you later, bye, bye.