Supervision in Counseling: Special Challenges and Solutions - Literature review Example

The increase complexity in the field of supervision and its wide usage especially in counselling have made business units develop tools and mechanism which will render maximum benefit. This has developed on the basis of different apprenticeships present in society. Supervision due the complexity of its nature has an emotional and mental education related to it. Supervision is looking over a large number of workers and ensuring that they adhere to the required standard set or followed by the organisation. (Smith, 2005) This developed with time and supervisor had to be innovator and also act as teachers. This made the profession complex and dynamic. For effective supervision it is essential that the complex nature and patterns of behavior be identified properly which will help to act in a better way. (Smythe, MacCulloch & Charmley, 2009) This also plays a role in determining what the speaker will say as the supervisor defines the way by listening to it. Still, this mode exposes supervisors vulnerability to a scrutiny from the public (Smythe, MacCulloch & Charmley, 2009) creating commotion and confusion. This has made supervision to be used freely. It makes the person in-charge to act in a manner which is free from a fixed pattern of behavior to ensure that he is able to act suitably. This has given the supervisor the leverage to act courageously and carefully. Also, the fact that supervision created emotional and mental dilemmas it can act as a tool for decision making. This has increased the use of supervision and is used in all fields. Supervision today is widely recognized in the field of counseling. The importance of supervision for counselors has grown but at the same time it has created emotional pressures and practical dilemmas. (Omand, 2009) This makes it important that while supervision is done in the field of counseling it is important to understand the conflicts and possibilities that can arise. Dealing with different patterns and backed by experience the supervisory process can create a situation when the mental and emotional education helps to reap better benefits. Supervision in counseling means that the work of the counselor will always be supervised whether it be when the counselor takes the help of another counselor or reviews the work of his clients or development on the personal or professional front (Mulhauser, 2010) making it difficult for the person to handle thereby creating conflicts. Despite it is important to have supervision in counseling as it creates ethical imperative. Supervision in the field of counseling is present for two broad reasons. They are Protecting the clients Improve the value of the client Supervision helps to serve these purposes as it reduces the risk present in counseling and by ensuring a third party it is ensured that conflicts are dealt with. (Mulhauser, 2010) This helps to garner different insights and ensure that the value of the client increases. Supervision has also ensured that counselors are free to act in a manner which doesn’t follow a fixed pattern thereby enabling better management. This increases the risk on the part of the supervisor as he has to act according to the legal & ethical requirements which gets burdened due to the clerical & administrative tasks also been undertaken (Herlihy, Gray & McCollum, 2002) especially in the field of counseling. This causes stress and burnouts. Supervision helps at this point as based on past experiences and with the practical education being imparted due to monitoring better decisions can be arrived at. This highlights the fact that “a good counselor won’t necessarily be a good supervisor”. (Culberth & Juhnke, 2001, pg 1) Supervision in the field of counseling raises some alarms because of the following reasons. Firstly, counselors are professionals so supervising them is a difficult task. Secondly, counselors are of the view that they must recover from their clients which creates complication. Lastly, counselors are influenced by personal whims. (Culberth & Juhnke, 2001) This tends to create confusion and makes it difficult for the supervisor as professionals have certain traits. Supervision means that confidentiality is lost but in the field of counseling measures have been taken to ensure that confidentiality is maintained. This has been possible because of the following Steps have been taken to ensure that individual information such as name is not revealed (VCT Toolkit, 2005) A contract has been maintained which ensures that confidential matters are not shared outside There are still situations where individual information needs to be shared but special care is taken to ensure that it doesn’t passes beyond that relationship. This helps to maintain confidentiality which is an important requirement in the field of counseling. Also the fact that supervision has created a field in counseling where based on past experiences and emotions better standards can be set and this could be adhered to by ensuring that the practical work is sound. Supervision has created the ability to act suitably and carefully have ensured transparency by ensuring that the client information is safe. For this the client has the right to ask the counselor about the different ways and mechanism adopted by him to safeguard the information. This is totally ethical and doing so creates pressure on the counselor who also abides by it and ensures that all mechanism is in place which will help to safeguard the information about the client. To make supervision more effective in the field of counseling the following four steps will act as a tool. Firstly, proper screening of the client problems, secondly, a proper contract between the client and counselor, thirdly, continuous feedback to the client and receiving feedback from the client and lastly reliable and valid evaluation of the performance. (Frisch, Boucher, Charbonneau, Lapointe & Turcotte, 2004) Following this step will ensure that supervision creates an environment where practical work is carried out suitably and courageously. Supervision in the field of counseling thereby provides various benefits which has grown the importance of supervision. They are as follows Firstly, supervision provides a sense of emotional and mental education which allows the counselor to act freely and based on past experiences and beliefs practical decisions can be arrived at. (Malcolm, Crocket & Lammers, 2007) This thereby increases the value of the counselor at the same time provides the mechanism to deal with the emotional aspect. Secondly, supervision helps to shape the cultural awareness for counseling and integrates the multicultural issues into the existing models of supervision. (Robinson, Bradley & Hendricks, 2003) This has thus helped to include the cultural perspective into counseling and ensured that more models are developed which will help in providing better supervision in the field of counseling. Thirdly, supervision helps counselor to develop professional confidence and to act freely. (Rawson, 2003) The counselor knows that his work is being observed and any mistakes on his part will be notified to him makes him act in a manner which is free from the fixed pattern of past experiences. This also leads towards developing his mental and emotional aspects as supervision acts as a practical guide which helps to develop both. Fourthly, as supervision helps the counselor to act freely it helps to explore alternative means of understanding the clients’ needs. (Rawson, 2003) The counselor due to mental and emotional education acquires new techniques and tools to evaluate the clients’ problems through different angle. This helps to act freely and in a manner most suitable keeping in mind the fact that there is supervision. Fifthly, supervision ensures that counselor acts according to the legal & ethical requirements (Herlihy, Gray & McCollum, 2002) which make it easy for the client. To ensure transparency and being ethical client can ask the counselor about the different ways and mechanism adopted by him to safeguard the information. This is totally ethical and doing so creates pressure on the counselor who also abides by it and ensures that all mechanism is in place which will help to safeguard the information about the client. Thus supervision helps to provide confidentiality. Sixthly, supervision reduces the risk on the clients by ensuring that the counselor will commit few mistakes as the learning from the emotional and mental aspect can be applied here. (McMahon & Patton, 2001) Supervision will always bind the counselor and his change in behavior and pattern due to the freedom to act freely will help to ensure that practical decision are arrived which is free from any ambiguity. Seventhly, supervision due to the mental and emotional education which a counselor has to go through will provide vocational and educational training to the counselor. (Joshua, 2002) Counselor based on his experiences and learning’s will provide the ready guidance which will help to pay attention to the minute details. Also, the fact that supervision will provide them with training will make the counselor to look towards the supervisor. Thus, supervision in the field of counseling provides various advantages to the counselor but also gives rise to certain difficulties. Some of the difficulties that arise in the field of counseling due to supervision are as Firstly, supervision leads towards lack of confidentiality of information. Despite, measures taken from all points there are likelihood that the data be leaked. This is a concern in the field of counseling and strict, appropriate measures need to be taken to tackle it. Secondly, supervision needs to be conducted at situations when the counselor is at his best which might get affected by external factors. (Kevin, 2010) These external factors might affect supervision and the unwillingness on the part to act freely due to past learning’s will make the emotional and mental education a waste. Thirdly, supervision due to willingness to act freely creates a mix of professional and personal character and not having the boundaries clearly demarcated between the two creates confusion and ambiguity in the field of counseling. (Heyer, 2008) This makes the counselor and supervisor creep into each other territories creating confusion and hindering the supervisory process. Fourthly, “compliances create complexity in the supervisory process” (Scout, 2002) as adhering to the regularities forces the counselor continue with the past experiences thereby making the process of mental education ineffective. The counselors to see that they adhere to the regularities are not able to act freely and this creates an emotional dilemma which renders the supervisory process ineffective. Lastly, acting in a free manner at times leads towards damaging the ethical violations. (Walker & Clark, 2009) Creating boundaries will force the counselor to function within those but this will again contradict with the willingness to act freely thereby creating an ethical dilemma? This is a serious concerns and is important that ways are ascertained through which it will be reduced. Despite the disadvantages supervision faces in the counseling field it is widely used and has become an important tool and mechanism for all. Supervision in the field of counseling is very important and can be seen from the following example. A counselor was into his counseling process for the last 90 minutes. The supervisor in charge of looking had already taken up a back up call and had place two people on an emergency task to see that the counselor adheres to the ethical considerations. The counselor had some left over work from the previous day. The supervisory function in the field of counseling allows acting freely and arriving at a practical decision. Also the contribution from past learning’s and the mental education imparted due to supervision helped to deal with the matter with ethnicity. (Likert, 2006) This highlights that supervision helps counseling as it ensures that mental and emotional education being imparted helps to act in a manner which is free helping to arrive at decision which are practical and suitable according to the situation. This shows that supervision has its effectiveness in the field of counseling. The effectiveness of supervision in this field highlights the importance laid to it. The effectiveness of supervision in counseling can be seen by the fact that supervision is influenced by the characteristics of the counselor. (Gottfredson, Herzfeld & Flanagan, 2005) This reduces the effectiveness of supervision and supervision gets molded according to the traits shown by the counselor which makes the counselor to act in boundaries. The effectiveness of supervision is also highlighted from the fact that different supervision programs have been designed which works “either in the front end or back end through electronic monitoring” (Markley, Cochran & Buck, 2006) to ensure that supervision is sound. Development in this sphere shows the underlying importance being laid to supervision and the growth and development it can impart to counseling. Another important point to consider in supervision is that intensive supervision makes the system ineffective and to improve the effectiveness general supervision is required. (Taxman, 2002) This is true in the field of counseling as intensive supervision will put a barrier on the counselor to act freely and his decisions will be influenced by past behaviors. General supervision will provide the leverage to act in a free manner which will help to ensure that decisions arrived at is suitable and correct. Despite all the developments and changes taking place there is a need for supervision in the field of counseling so that the supervisor creates and emotional and mental framework where they are able to act freely. The following will help to improve the way supervision takes place in the field of counseling and will shape a path for growth. Supervision in the field of counseling will improve with the introduction of different teaching programs which help to act freely and courageously. (Dale, Williams, Wellesley & Glucksman, 2000) This will improve the process of supervision as emotional and mental training will impart the necessary tactics and mechanism to deal with different situations which will help in the supervisory role. Another mechanism which will improve supervision is by continuous reporting which will help to learn from the past experiences and will thereby give the impetus to act in a manner which creates a practical work sphere to act freely. Thus, supervision plays a key role in the field of counseling. The growth and development of new models of supervision has further ensured that supervision helps to act freely based on past experience patterns which will help to arrive at decision which are practical. To make the supervisory process more effective continuous developments and education needs to be imparted so that an atmosphere is created to act freely. 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