Dr Tony Weston is a BACP Senior Accredited Supervisor of individual supervisees, and is working towards accreditation by BACP as a supervisor for groups of counsellors/ psychotherapists.

All counsellors, psychotherapists and supervisors are required to have regular Clinical Supervision. If you ‘have to have’ supervision you likely want to ensure you are getting what you want from the supervision you are investing your time, money and professional development in.

There are many models of supervision, including:

– Proctor’s 1988 three tasks of supervision (Formative – educative, Restorative – supportive and Normative – managerial)

– Hawkins and Shohet’s 2006 Seven-eyed process model of supervision.

– Ladany’s Events-based model of supervision (e.g. Ladany, Friedlander and Nelson, 2005).

Surprisingly, for something mandated by professional bodies, there is very little evidence that supervision makes any contribution to client outcomes (Watkins, 2011). So what is a practitioner who wants to work in an evidence-based way to do?

Fortunately there is lots of evidence about what works in counselling and psychotherapy relationships e.g. Norcross, 2011. In addition to providing the support you would expect from a clinical supervisor, the approach taken by Dr Tony Weston in supervision is to consider evidence-based practice, particularly two areas shown, from a supervision perspective, to be particularly helpful for good client outcomes: Collecting client feedback (Lambert and Shimokawa, 2011) and the management of countertransference (Hayes, Gelso and Hummel, 2011). Countertransference is any reaction the practitioner has to the client that prevents or diminishes their ability to provide congruent empathy, unconditional positive regard and to work effectively with their client according to their theoretical model.

Dr Tony Weston enjoys working as a Clinical Supervisor and welcomes supervisees from all theoretical models and different ways of working. Whilst Dr Weston’s approach uses quantitative outcome measures not all of the supervisees he works with use this approach. You will not be expected to use quantitative outcome measures and if you would like to, this can be an optional part of your supervision.

In the past supervisees have been supported with a range of developmental activities including: fulfilling training course requirements, fulfilling accreditation requirements, implementing new techniques/approaches to working with particular difficulties or symptoms, beginning to work with couples, beginning to work with families, working as a clinical supervisor and so on.

If you would like to meet to consider working with Dr Tony Weston you can contact him now on 01223-894896 (phone is answered by a receptionist 24/7) or email him at tony.weston5@btinternet.com to make an initial appointment.

An initial paid for appointment is an opportunity to share the backgrounds of the supervisor and supervisee, a time for mutual assessment and if appropriate to begin the process of negotiating a supervisory alliance.

References:

Hayes, J A, Gelso, C J and Hummel, A M (2011). Managing countertransference. In J C Norcross, Psychotherapy relationships that work: Evidence-based responsiveness. Second Edition (pp. 203-223). New York: Oxford University Press.

Hawkins, P and Shohet, R (2006). Supervision in the helping professions. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ladany, N, Friedlander, M L and Nelson, M L (2005). Critical events in psychotherapy supervision: An interpersonal approach. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

Lambert, M J and Shimokawa, K (2011). Collecting client feedback. In J C Norcross, Psychotherapy relationships that work: Evidence-based responsiveness. Second Edition (pp. 203-223). New York: Oxford University Press.

Norcross, J C (2011). Psychotherapy relationships that work: Evidence-based responsiveness. Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Proctor, B (1988). Supervision: A working alliance (videotape training manual). St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex: Alexia Publications.

Watkins, C E (2011). Does psychotherapy supervision contribute to patient outcomes? Considering 30 years of research. The Clinical Supervisor 30 (2) 235-256…