Supervision and Consultation

Supervision

We are excited to be able to offer clinical supervision to VCR Rostered Clinicians. Below are a few important notes about supervision and some helpful links as you make your way towards licensure.

The roles of your Clinical supervisor

Your supervisor is your go-to person for all things clinical. Any questions about clients, best practices, safety, mandated reporting, and duty-to-warn should go directly to your supervisor. Upon starting your supervisory relationship, your supervisor will share with you their communication preferences (i.e. text, email, phone calls). You and your supervisor will meet on a weekly basis for individual clinical supervision, as well as check in as needed in between scheduled times if a client need or concern should arise. Please remember that you are practicing under their license, so it is essential that you communicate with them and keep them looped in to your clinical decisions. Because you are working under their license and they are carrying extra liability in allowing this, supervisors reserve the right to request that you not accept any client who they determine is not a best fit for your/their practice.

What to do if you cannot get ahold of your clinical supervisor?

• Reach out to another member of the leadership team

  • Kristine Reynolds - 970.443.2502 (call or text) kristine@vtresiliency.com

  • Laurel Gray Robbins - 914.806.7163 (call or text)/ laurelgray@vtresiliency.com

  • Bonnie Glass - 267.476.3995 / bonnie@vtresiliency.com

  • Keep trying - in a true client related emergency it is ok to keep calling.

Your responsibilities as a supervisee

• Be honest and transparent with your supervisor.

• Accept feedback.

• Learn what your supervisors preferences are for communication.

• Attend your weekly supervision, with topics, client questions, practice questions, etc. Generally be engaged and curious in your process.

• Keep track of your hours. This is NOT your supervisor’s responsibility. They keep their own supervisory documentation, however it is up to you to monitor your hours towards licensure.

• Monitor the length of time you have been on the roster. Medicaid policy only allows clinicians to remain on the roster for 5 years. If you are getting close to this mark, a form to request an extension may be filled out.

Other important notes

• Your supervisor can only supervise you on clients within their scope of practice. For example, if you have interest in working with children and your supervisor has no experience with this population, they cannot provide supervision for these clients. We utilize our full leadership team in these situations, and do our best to create opportunities for consultation or additional supervision.

• Vermont is a small community, and there may be times when your supervisor has a conflict with a client in your practice and therefore be unable to provide you with supervision around that client. Again, we utilize our full leadership team in these situations, and do our best to create opportunities for consultation or additional supervision.

• Please share with your supervisor any written communication (i.e. letters of support) you intend to share with clients or providers you are collaborating with on behalf of your client prior to sending. This would include records requests, letter requests, other documentation requests, etc.

• VCR offers group supervision on a bi-weekly basis. This may or may not be with your direct clinical supervisor and can be counted towards licensure or be used by licensed clinicians as consultation.

Helpful links

• Office of Professional Regulation

• NASW Best Practice Standards of Social Work Supervision

Consultation

Another exciting offer that any clinician at VCR has access to is clinical consultation. Clinical consultation is different from supervision in that the clinician seeking the consult may be licensed or unlicensed. Typically clinicians seek out consultation around specific cases or situations. It is best practice to never make a decision in a vacuum. So when in doubt, consult!

• You may reach out to any member of the leadership team for a consult.

• Peer consultation is encouraged! However, it is best practice to consult with a member of the leadership team if there is a safety concern or mandated reporting concern.

Group Supervision

We believe that Group Supervision is an opportunity to connect on clinical and administrative needs, build community, and to strengthen the Four C’s:

• Confidence

• Competence

• Compassion

• Creativity

Based on conversations among our community of clinicians, our intention for our bi-weekly Group Supervision sessions is to balance some structure with room for flow. We’ll honor supervision time that is theme centered, case centered, and worker centered.

We will open our time together at 12 pm with ~5 minutes of connections and check-ins. Building community is a valued aspect of our group time together!

If any clinician has a case they’d like to present, we ask that folks email Group Supervision facilitator, Bonnie Glass, at bonnie@vtresiliency.com, to add the case presentation to the agenda or you can add your case to the agenda at the start of the group supervision. This is an opportunity for case centered Group Supervision. It is helpful for any clinician who is presenting a case to ask for what they need so that fellow clinicians can hold space in a way that meets the need of the presenting clinician. For example:

• I need help problem solving with this case

• I need help building empathy for this client

• I need validation

• I have an update

• I need help with case conceptualization

• I don’t know what I need, but I need help!

After case presentations, or if no clinicians present a case, we’ll create time and space for theme centered and worker centered supervision. Below is a list of some themes that we invite you to peruse. Please feel free to come to Group Supervision with a topic you’d be interested in diving into together!

• Unconditional Positive Regard

• Empathy

• Boundaries

• Therapeutic Alliance

• Eliciting Feedback

• Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress

• Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction

• Vicarious Trauma and Vicarious Resiliency

The facilitator will be responsible for keeping an eye on the time and will support the Group in ending around 12.45 pm in an effort to be mindful of time for closings and self-care in the midst of the work day!