If you're a pre-licensed counselor looking for clinical supervision, I am currently able to supervise in the state of Colorado. I will be a Qualified Supervisor in the state of Florida as of May 2024. Regarding my qualifications to supervise, I have taken two doctoral level courses from the CACREP-accredited doctoral program at the University of Florida in 2021 and 2022, including the Theory of Supervision. I have provided weekly supervision sessions to four Masters-level students under the supervision of a faculty member (called supervision-of-supervision), and I take continuing education courses for supervision on a regular basis. For comparison, many supervisors in the field have only taken an 8-hour training course to become qualified to supervise.

Having an fully-formed theory is critical to providing an effective, consistent approach to supervision. My personal supervision approach combines the Integrative Developmental Model (Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010), the transtheoretical model of change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983), and existential philosophy with techniques from motivational interviewing (MI) and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). Autonomy is a major theme in existentialism, which confronts and acknowledges the darkness of humanity. I see the counseling and supervision rooms as an extension of this—a safe place to wrestle with life. I will emphasize autonomy to validate your choices as my supervisee while encouraging you to consider alternatives. Some other relevant existential themes to supervision are intimacy vs isolation (such as the strength of the working alliance), meaning-making, and the causes of anxiety as a new counselor.

I will use MI to support your progress through the stages of change, meeting you where you are, identifying your desired changes or signs of growth, and facilitating your movement toward the goals you set for yourself. Using MI is the opposite of forcing an agenda on someone and embodies gentleness, one of my highest values. I will also use SBFT because it empowers you to consider what changes you would like to make and places the responsibility to change on you. It is strength-based and future-oriented, both of which I believe are critical for clinical development. Missteps in therapy and supervision are a given; how you recover from them is where growth happens. No clinician is perfect, but we each have something unique to offer to the other and to the world.

While many employers may offer free supervision as part of your employment arrangement, keep in mind they can only provide a perspective that is limited to what will support the business. As a newcomer to the field and without experiences of supervision beyond your graduate program, you are particularly vulnerable. It may be worth the investment in your professional development to have a supervisor with an outside perspective who has had a breadth of clinical experiences.

My current rate for clinical supervision services is $100/hour. This is less than the suggested and typical rate of around $150/hour because I recognize the low wages and exploitation that often occur in the two years between graduation and licensure. However, my rate also takes into account the ongoing education of being a supervisor, the increased liability due to being legally responsible for your clients while you work under my license, and the time I put into our relationship, which may include being available outside of our sessions for crises, searching for resources and preparing for sessions, or even supervision-of-supervision services for myself if needed.