Should I Advertise My Private Psychotherapy Practice?
Therapy is a business like any other. Treat it like one and have a thriving practice in no time at all.
What Is Dyadic Clinical Supervision?
As supervisors, one of our favourite things to do is to talk about client cases in a dyadic format. Solid, irrefutable answers are hard to come by in therapy. We wade through waters of grey on a daily basis and it can be overwhelming to conceptualise a case on your own.
By talking about your cases in a dyadic format, you not only get the perspective of the supervisor but also the valued perspective of your peer. Although individual and group clinical supervision certainly have its place, at OntarioSupervision.ca we have found that dyadic is the perfect blend of learning for new and upcoming therapists.
Medical Assistance in Dying in Clinical Supervision
As of March, 2023, people whose primary diagnosis is a mental health concern will be eligible for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) throughout Canada. Understandably, this is a concerning time for many mental health practitioners and questions remain about what actually constitutes “‘grievous and irremediable’ mental illness”.
Using Clinical Supervision to Address Counter- Transference
All therapists experience countertransference. Learning how to handle it is a fundamental objective of clinical supervision
The Business End of Therapy and Clinical Supervision
We hear it time and time again. ‘In all of the years I studied to be a therapist, why did no one ever mention basic business skills?’
If you peruse the offerings at any masters level therapy program you will see countless mentions of trauma-informed, CBT, DBT, solution-focused, etc. but you will never hear the words budget, payroll or marketing. So, why is that?
It seems that therapist training continues the way it always has been, because that’s how it has always been. There is no rhyme or reason why basic business skills are not taught to masters level clinicians, but here we are. By the time you graduate you are likely able to help people sort through their problems, can identify maladaptive coping skills and can assess which clients will benefit from what treatment. But filing your first year of taxes after opening your small business? Good luck with that!
Therapeutic Silence in Clinical Supervision
As a profession, we tend to want to fill up the silence as fast as possible. After all, we are not immune to feelings of awkwardness or that uncomfortable sensation when a pause becomes more than just a pause. But leaning into the silence can actually be a very powerful instrument.
A Fictional Day at the Office of a Clinical Supervisor
“Well it’s about this client, Todd, that I’ve been working with for the past two months. When he first started seeing me he was so eager to change and would welcome any possible suggestion I might have. But now, I have to drag the words out of him. It’s like he’s lost in some sort of fog and I can’t get him out.”
Why Does Clinical Supervision Give Me Anxiety?
In fact, anxiety is the most recognized emotion for both supervisors and supervisees (Kuo et al., 2016). One of the many theories for why anxiety is so prevalent in clinical supervision is the many roles that a supervisee might take on a daily basis. They could be a student, a parent, a partner, a therapist and a supervisee all in one day. These dual roles of the student and trainee at the same time can lead to role conflict. The roles of student and the role of therapist are quite different, yet we expect supervisees to effortlessly sway back and forth between the two roles. The two roles are behaviourally-distinctive from one another (Holloway, 1995) so having to switch between the two can be anxiety-provoking.
I’m Done School. Why Do I Need Clinical Supervision?
It’s important to be humble as therapists. It’s easy to think that we know better than our clients or that if they just followed our advice better, their lives would improve. But imposing our own ideals onto our clients is a common topic in clinical supervision in Ontario for many reasons. In the end, it doesn’t matter what we think the client should do. What matters is what the client thinks they should do and even more importantly, what they believe they have the capacity to do. We aren’t here to provide answers. We are here to help our clients find their own answers.
Psychotherapy in a Post Pandemic World
Therapists have been able to fit more clients into their schedules and have also found an easier time of working in the off-hours. Suddenly, an evening session on a Thursday isn’t out of the question whereas three years ago that would have sounded absurd.
The Basics of Clinical Supervision in Ontario
The main purpose of the College is to protect members of the public from nefarious actions on the part of the therapists. This can include boundary violations, sexual involvement with clients, practising out of scope as well as conflict of interest issues. Simply put, the harm that a therapist can cause to client can be life-changing and we need laws and practices that protect vulnerable populations.