Clinical Supervision: Role, Models, and Professional Growth

This essay comprehensively examines clinical supervision, emphasizing its critical role in healthcare. It begins by outlining the ethical and legal principles that guide clinical supervisors, including vicarious liability, boundary concerns, informed consent, due process, and confidentiality. The essay then delves into professional codes and standards, highlighting the importance of ethical decision-making and the promotion of quality care. It explores the role of clinical supervision in professional, organizational, and personal development, underscoring its impact on staff competence, client outcomes, and organizational effectiveness. Various models of clinical supervision are discussed, with a focus on competency-based models. The essay also addresses the significance of self-awareness and problem-solving skills for both supervisors and supervisees, emphasizing their contribution to emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. Ultimately, the essay concludes that clinical supervision is essential for fostering quality care, promoting professional growth, and enhancing client well-being.

Running head: CLINICAL SUPERVISION 1
Clinical Supervision
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Critical Reflection
Ethical and Legal Principles to the Practice of Clinical Supervision
It is satisfying to recognize that clinical supervisors don’t just carry out their roles as they
wish, instead they have a set of ethical and legal principles that guide them in their daily practice.
I believe that having these set of principles on ethics and legality make them act and carry out
themselves ethically in their daily interactions in their area of jurisdiction together with the
supervisees (Moked & Drach‐Zahavy, 2016). Similarly, these ethical and legal principles that in
my assumption and intellectual capacity I regard appropriate helps safeguard the supervisees
client’s wellbeing and the organization that employs them by one, maintaining a sound
understanding of the ethical and professional codes of conduct that cut across all the workers for
example the federal laws, the state and local laws in conjunction with those that apply to workers
within professionals, for example, the Australian Association of social workers code of ethics.
Two, following proper steps to make sure that the conduct of the supervisors remains in the
jurisdiction of the ethical and professional parameters. It is also exciting to note that there are
ethical and legal issues that are especially relevant for clinical supervisors, they include first,
vicarious ability which means that a clinical supervisor has the duty of care in relation to the
clients of the supervisees. Secondly, we have dual relationships and boundary concerns, the
clinical supervisors are expected to maintain proper boundaries in relation to their supervisees
and to be knowledgeable on the signs that the boundaries of the supervisees with other clients
when crossing into vague or problem risky territories. Thirdly, the informed consent should be
part and parcel of the relationship in the supervision, just in the same way, it is part of the
relationship of the client and counsellor. Informed consent should be addressed in setting goals
of supervision, evaluation of goals and the specific time frames and integration of various

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theoretical models. Fourthly, there is what we call due process, this includes written procedure to
be followed when a certain grievance or issue has been raised against the supervisor, counselor
or the administration. Lastly, we have the confidentiality, various parameters of confidentiality
should be clearly outlined to all workers working as clinical supervisors and included in the
contract of supervision.
Professional Codes and Standards to the Practice of Clinical Supervision
According to Cutcliffe and Sloan (2018, most of the professional codes of ethics are
about what we should not do. It is important for an organization to develop the positive values
and virtues by which they want to live to in their specific work places, and that is why
Dimitriadou, Papastavrou, Efstathiou and Theodorou (2015), had a notion of ethical maturity
which means having reflective, rational and emotional capacity to determine and identify on
what actions are appropriate and which ones are wrong, having the confidence to become
accountable of the decision one makes.
Amsrud, Lyberg & Severinsson (2015), also states that there comes a time when
difficulties and problems in ethics arise occasionally in the practice of supervision. In
establishing a way forward in handling and solving various dilemmas in ethics that are posed in
supervision, Blomberg et al (2016), recommend the following five overall principles of ethical
decision making. They include the principle that people have right to freedom and action, the
principle that there should be reasonability of every action taken, keeping to the made promises,
treating individuals fairly and striving hard to prevent harm or danger. Pålsson, Mårtensson,
Swenne, Ädel and Engström (2017) adds that there is a necessity for supervision in the field of
substance abuse treatment to enhance the care of various clients, establish clinical personnel
expertise, and performance by maintaining ethical standard in the sector. In the resent years

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clinical supervision has been observed as becoming one of the major cornerstone in improving
quality and assurance. This is impressive, a a practitioner in this field I am delighted to note such
outcome.
Nepal et al. (2016) clarifies sensibly when they state that as supervisors to the client,
counsellor and the organization, the significant of their position is in the following statements:
one, an organization has a mandate to ensure that there is quality and assurance in the
improvement of all personnel. Thus, the first aim of the clinical supervision is to ensure that
there is provision of services that are of quality and to safeguard the client’s welfare. Two,
supervisors should understand that supervision is the right of all employees and it has an impact
on the development of the workforce, staff and client retention. Three, supervisors should
oversee the staff’s clinical function and have a responsibility both legal and ethical to ensure that
there is quality care of the clients, counsellors are developed in a more professional way and
program policies and procedures are maintained. Finally, having an understanding that learning
of counsellors in the sector is dependent on clinical supervision, and apart from classroom
learning, clinical expertise is gotten through regular training, reflection, response and application
of the recommendations originated from clinical supervision.
In their concluding remarks which I feel makes a lot of sense, they state that the goal of
clinical supervision is to generally promote quality care for the client, which involves monitoring
the clinical performance of the staff. The first step for the supervisors is to educate supervisees in
what they should expect in clinical supervision. Once the clinical supervision roles are clear, the
clinical supervisors should regularly evaluate the progress of the counsellors in meeting the goals
of clinic and organization as set in an individual development plan. Clinical supervisors should

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therefore ensure that just like the clients have individual development plan so should the
counsellors to promote development of skills
Role of Clinical Supervision in Professional, Organizational and Personal Development,
and outcomes for Consumers
One of the dynamics in health that surprises me is clinical supervision, emerging as the
crucible in which knowledge and skills are passed on to the counsellors. Because of this, it has
constantly led to development of professions, organizations and individual development. Quality
clinical supervision, is founded on the positive relationship of the supervisor- supervisee
relationship that promotes the welfare of the clients and at the same time development of the
profession of the supervisee (Ford et al, 2016). Clinical supervision has been all about providing
support, encouraging and providing education to the staff while addressing various issues of the
clients concerning their psychological, interpersonal, physical and even spiritual (d'Souza,
Karkada, Parahoo & Venkatesaperumal, 2015). Effective clinical supervision ensure that the
ultimate benefit of the client is that competent service falls in their hands. Additionally, Pires,
Santos, Pereira and Rocha (2016) stresses that supervision ensures that the counsellors and other
relevant profession among the supervises increasingly become competent in terms of increasing
their skills, which at the end results to effectiveness, retention of the clients and satisfaction of
the staff.
According to Freshwater, Walsh and Esterhuizen (2017), there is a very huge role clinical
supervisor plays in professional, organizational and personal development. Clinical supervisors
have been over the years helping staff to identify whatever thing is happening in the organization
that might in a way be contributing to their different forms of stress they could be having and
learn how to amicably and intellectually address the situation in a way that is client productive,

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the counsellor and the organization. The other way the clinical supervisors have been impacting
the organization and individuals is the fact that they have been offering training in identification
of the signs of reactions of primary stress, trauma, fatigue traumatization and the general
burnout. They help the staff to easily match up self-care tools to amicably address different
experiences. They have also been supporting the staff to advocate change in the organization
when it is necessary and sensible as part of the liaising between the clinical staff and the
administration they also help assist the staff in embracing lifestyle changes that constantly
increases the emotional resilience by making them reconnect to the world, spending some time in
solitude and forming habits that makes them reenergize. They also help the staff eliminate
negative thoughts that would most probably derail them and cause them to underperform, make
them realize that they can save the world, they have so much potential and therefore they should
never look down upon themselves. Lastly, they teach and support different staff members to
develop and possess positive work habits, it is notable according to Alves and Pacheco (2016)
that some counsellors or staff do not only lack basic organizational and lean work but also phone
and time management skills. Therefore, the development of these skills by the help of the clinical
supervisors will help reduce the daily wear that destroys the well ness and contributes to the
hated burn out.
Clinical Supervision Model
I believe that among the models of clinical supervision there are those that can be
preferred by a certain organization for one reason of the other (Amsrud et al., 20015). Still,
organization or health facilities may still choose to incorporate more than one model. I feel that
competency based models will be appropriate since it principally focusses on the skills and needs
for learning of the supervisee by forming objectives that are SMART. The reason I also feel that

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it is most appropriate model is that they are at the verge of constructing and implementing
various strategies to achieve the goals. Additionally, the model is well known fir applying
principles that can be learned socially (Amsrud et al., 20015).
Capacity for Self-awareness and Problem-Solving Skills
Self-awareness is one of the key components of emotional intelligence. Crafoord and
Fagerdahl, (2017) identified self-awareness as a person being made up of awareness of emotions,
succinct self-assessment and self-confidence. In short, it is all about an individual knowing about
their emotions, individual strong point and weak point and having a undoubted feeling of self-
esteem. Because clinical supervision involves a relationship between the supervisor and the
supervisee, the elements of self-awareness and problem-solving skills are very essential. Problem
solving skills are necessary in the general clinical supervision because it is evident that at one
point in the supervision, there could be possible brushing of shoulders either amongst the
supervisees or between the supervisors and the supervisees (Crafoord and Fagerdahl, 2017). In
any conflict arising in an organization set up or among the individuals, it is important that
appropriate problem-solving skills be enhanced to promote conflict resolution in a way that both
parties will maintain a healthy relationship.
On the other hand, clinical supervisors ought to have the capacity for self-awareness for
themselves first and then be concerned about the supervisees self-awareness. The reason why it
is necessary to have self-awareness is that those who have, find a reason for living and they truly
live a happy and a productive life. Scaife (2019) state that clinical supervisors have a
responsibility in ensuring that the supervisees have identified their self-worth, otherwise they
will live a life that the society has taught them - where it is a belief that people should ignore
their feelings and emotions. The staff ability to have self-awareness is dependent on what the

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role that the clinical supervisor will play in their life especially for those who have never
identified their self-worth. Becoming aware individual’s emotions and how they affect their
different behavior is effective to the interaction with fellow staff and the clients. It can all the
same be crucial for the individual health and wellbeing (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016).
In conclusion, it is apparent that clinical supervision is an emerging type of health
improvement, that has and continues to yield tremendous results to the overall development of
profession, the organization and individual development. But most importantly is that it has
enhanced the wellbeing of the consumer and their overall outcome.

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References
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Amsrud, K. E., Lyberg, A., & Severinsson, E. (2015). The influence of clinical supervision and
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Blomberg, K., Isaksson, A. K., Allvin, R., Bisholt, B., Ewertsson, M., Kullén Engström, A., ... &
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Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. D. (2016). Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and
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