Advanced Skills (Thinking) in
Clinical Supervision.
Developing Your Internal
Strength-Based Voice:
From Effectiveness to
Greatness in Supervision.
2005©
1
Presented for
The First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
on Clinical Supervision
by
Dr. Jeffrey K. Edwards
Professor
The Family Counseling Program,
Department of Counselor Education,
Northeastern Illinois University
773-442-5541
2
 The full Power Point Presentation can be
found at:
 http://www.neiu.edu/~jkedward/ppt
 Under advanced supervision
 © 2005 Dr. Jeffrey K. Edwards
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A reason to advance your
thinking of supervision
 A study of 20,000 exit interviews in
many fields including mental health
found the number one reason
people leave jobs is "poor
supervisory behavior." They felt that
their supervisors were not
interested in their growth.
4
Reasons for Expanding Supervision
 Usually supervision is focused on
techniques and interface issues (countertransference), not on being a more genuine,
complete human being.
 Survey indicated a need for something more.
 My experience with managed care and
agencies involved with mismanagement.
(consultation luncheon) (Andi)
 Carrot stick vs. treating kindly philosophy.
(soft influence – Europe’s diplomacy)
 Traditional supervision methods are not
complete if all we do is model and teach how
to be better clinicians (technical) but not
better humans beings.
5
My Early Experience in Strength
Based Supervision style
 Tony and my postmodern training.
 These ideas began to evolve several years
ago when my colleague and friend Dr. Mei
Whei Chen and I wrote “Strength-Based
Supervision: Frameworks, Current
Practice, and Future Directions. A Wu-wei
Method” The Family Journal, Oct 1999; 7:
349 - 357.
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 Let’s look at what most agencies
want from their therapists and
interns.
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What I learned from the survey.
Edwards, J.K., & Pyskoty, C. (2004). Clinical Training Needs of
Illinois Counselors: Survey of Internship Sites, ICA Journal.
 Types of Tx.
 What agencies want from interns.
 Thus, what they want from employees.
Illinois Survey was sent to 584 sites with a return of 186 surveys, or
31.9%. National survey’s N =2244, n= 642 or 28.609%
Types of sites were a wide variety -- the three largest groupings being
community mental health services, child welfare services, and
substance abuse services -- and including very specialized programs,
such as counseling clients with HIV. Site supervisor respondents
included social workers, counselors, psychologists, family therapists
and physicians.
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Usage of Counseling/Psychotherapy Models (raw scores)
Types/ Models
Of Counseling/
Psychotherapy
Illinois
N=584
n=186
31.84%
National
N=1660
n= 467
27..5%
Counsel
N=877
n=241
27.48%
Psych
N=437
n=94
21.51%
S.W.
N=346
n=119
34.39%
Adlerian
6
3
3
0
0
Behavioral
65
58
35
11
9
Brief Strategic
35
35
16
6
9
Client Centered
38
39
33
3
2
Cognitive
66 (35.5%) 93
49
34
9
Family Systems
54 (29%)
65
35
8
21
Jungian
1
1
0
1
0
Narrative
9
3
0
2
1
Psychodynamic
34
58
10
25
24
Reality
23
27
24
0
3
Solution Focused
82 (44%)
82
51
4
25
Structural
5
3
1
0
2
Usage frequency of various models of counseling/psychotherapy as reported by Internship Sites, from Illinois Counseling, and by discipline in the
USA*. Data from COR Grant research from a State of Illinois Survey (1999-2000) and a National Survey (2000-01), by Dr. Jeffrey K. Edwards,
Department of Counselor Education, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL 60625.
* Most all sites also provide internship preparation for multi-disciplines.
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Beyond Clinical Skills
 Greater concern from site supervisors,
however, seems to be situated with a student’s
ability to work as a teammate. Supervisors
want employees who are not only skilled as
clinicians, but are people who have maturity
and good character. Comments ranged from
“self starters,” “patience,” “positive job
attitude,” “confident,” and “good work ethic,” to
“ability to set boundaries,” “adaptable,” “good
intentions,” “creative,” and “good self-care.”
Both the state-wide and the national results
stressed personal factors that indicated a
mature, self-reliant and highly capable person.
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Beyond Clinical Skills
 Site supervisors indicated that they want
more than just well-trained people; they
want clinicians who are of good quality,
substance, integrity, and hold a positive
attitude.
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Cutting-edge Management Ideas Rather
Than Supervision/Mental Health Ideas.
 The Industrial Age Worker vs. The Knowledge
Worker – two different views.
 Voice means to have a stake in what is being
done with and too you. To be able to take part
in shaping your own care, to speak your mind,
to do your best YOUR way. To be held
accountable by your own actions, to be trusted
to do what is right, to have values, to be
treated with dignity and respect, and to pass
this on to those around you.
Stephen Covey 12
Theories for Advanced Supervision
are based on:
 Counselor Efficacy – Personal Agency –
Albert Bandura.
 Forethought as an element of Agency –
Albert Bandura.
 Constructivist/ Strength-based work –
(Goolishian; White, etc.), in clinical work, and
(Edwards and Chen) in supervision.
 Finding your voice, and helping others find
theirs –Steven Covey.
 Signature Strengths – Martin Seligman’s
Positive Psychology.
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The Five Elements of Advanced
Clinical Supervision
 Being able to see the glass as half full.
 Help your stakeholder co-visees develop
personal agency (self-efficacy).
 Help your stakeholder co-visees begin the
process of strength-based forethought.
 Help your stakeholder co-visees find and
use their voice.
 Encourage your stakeholder co-visees to
pass it on to others.
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Review of Typical
Supervision Executive Skill
Principles
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Domains of a supervisor
Principles of isomorphs
Boundary making
Relationship skills
Ethics
Developmental stages,
Counselor Self-Efficacy (CSE) and
Personal Agency
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Advanced Supervision
 Advanced expertise in supervision should
move beyond (in addition to) the typical
executive skills of boundary making,
relationship skills, consultation skills,
ethics and the like, to forethought,
empowerment and strength enhancing
work with supervisee – called voice.
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• If you want to make minor,
incremental changes and
improvements, work on
practices, behaviors or attitude.
But if you want to make
significant, quantum
improvement, work on
paradigms. S.Covey, 2005
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Moving to advanced
Supervision Principles:
A Paradigm Shift
 Counseling Self-Efficacy (CSE) and
Personal Agency;
 Supervisory Forethought;
 The use of Strength-Based Clinical
Values;
 thus Finding, Using and Passing on
Voice.
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Self-Efficacy
Self efficacy is the belief in one’s
capabilities to organize and execute
the sources of action required to
manage perspective situations.
Bandura 1986
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Self-Efficacy
What does it do?
It influences:
• The choices we make
• The effort we put forth
• How long we persist
When we confront obstacles
(and in the face of failure)
• And how we feel.
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Counseling Self-Efficacy (CSE) and
Personal Agency
Counselors with higher CSE are
more likely to view their own
anxiety as challenging, set realistic,
moderately challenging goals, and
to have thoughts that are selfaiding.
In addition, high self-efficacy helps
counselors put forth effort, and to
persevere under failure.
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Personal Agency
 Personal agency is characterized by a
number of core features, including:
 intentionality,
 forethought,
 self- regulation and self-reflectiveness
about one’s capabilities,
 quality of functioning,
 and the meaning and purpose of one’s
life pursuits.
Bandura, 2001
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Forethought
 Through the exercise of forethought, people
motivate themselves and guide their actions in the
anticipation of future events.
When projected over a long time course on
matters of value, a forethoughtful perspective
provides direction, coherence, and meaning to
one’s life.
After a person adopts personal standards, they
regulate their behavior by self-evaluative
outcomes, which may augment or override the
influence of external outcomes.
Bandura, 2001
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Strength-Based Clinical Values
 The following is not intended to teach
you, convince you or change your
mind. It is merely to inspire you to
think in other dimensions, and with an
open mind.
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The use of Strength-Based
Clinical Values;
 The use of strength based ideas have
been around for centuries, however
the western mind has joined with the
medical tradition to seek out
“problems” and “fixes” for them.
J. Edwards
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 The language of mental health is deficit
based, the number of diagnostic categories
continues to grow in numbers and social
acceptance despite major criticisms. The
language that has become common in
mental health draws attention to people’s
problems or inabilities, rather than their
potential for growth and change.
 Gergen, K.J. (1991). The Saturated Self
New York, NY: Basic Books
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 Simply put -- at its most elemental and
practical level -- leadership is
communicating to people their worth and
potential so clearly that they come to see it
in themselves. Period!
 Stephen R. Covey, (2005).The 8th Habit: From
Effectiveness to Greatness.
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 The western world’s emphasis is on the
negative side of life, as demonstrated
by weather forecasts predicting a 30%
chance of rain rather than a 70%
chance of better weather. The field of
mental health is a prime example of
this mentality.
Edwards, J.K.
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Postmodern ideas change the
concepts of a problem focus
 Piaget – Glass half full or half empty
 Cubs coach Jim Fry and the movie
 Solution focused rather than problem
focused
 Narrative – the person is not the
problem, the problem is the problem.
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 Discussion by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D. of a training/
supervision session he had with Transactional Analysis and
group therapy expert Mary Goulding.
 After finishing 20 minutes of work with the group, I turned to
Mary for feedback. She said, “Jeff, these are the things that
you did right.” And she listed them. Then she told me, “Here
are some options for things that you could do differently.”
She listed those. Then, she said, “All right, now you go back
into the group and some body else will be the therapist.”
 I was shocked. Something was missing. I said, “Mary, what
did I do wrong?” Mary looked at me quizzically and replied,
“What do you want to know that for?” I said, “That’s what my
supervisors would normally have done. They tell me what I
do wrong.” Mary said, “It’s not valuable in formation.” When I
reflected on her observation, I realized she was right!
 . Zeig J.K., Ph.D. (1985) (Ed). The Evolution of
Psychotherapy. Brunner Mazel, Inc. New York, NY
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There are two ways of exerting one's strength:
one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
-- Booker T. Washington
The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good
qualities in others, and does not accentuate the
bad. The inferior does the reverse.
-- Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese Philosopher
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 The best way to inspire people to
a superior performance is to
convince them by everything you
do and by your everyday attitude
that you are wholeheartedly
supporting them.
 Harold S. Greneen, Former Chairman of
ITT
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 I have yet to find the man, however
exalted his station, who did not do
better work and put forth greater effort
under a spirit of approval than under a
spirit of criticism.”
--Charles M. Schwab
 Treat people as if they were what they
ought to be and you will help them
become what they are capable of
becoming.
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
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 I praise loudly; I blame softly.
-- Catherine the Second (1729-1796) Russian
Empress
 Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what
to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
-- General George S. Patton
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 I do not believe that you should devote
overly much effort to correcting your
weaknesses. Rather, I believe that the
highest success in living and the deepest
emotional satisfaction comes from building
and using your signature strengths. Martin
Seligman, 2002.
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Strength Focused Forethought
 Eliciting strengths is foremost.
– The new paradigm presents us with a
change from problem focused to
strength based interactions.
– Edwards and Chen,
– Arlene -
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Moving to advanced
Supervision Principles:
A Paradigm Shift
 Finding and using Voice.
 Confidence on the outside begins by living with
integrity on the inside.
-- Brian Tracy
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 And remember, you are helping your
stakeholders develop and improve
in the following areas:
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Being a team player,
More maturity and good character,
Being a self starter,
Having patience,
Having a positive job attitude,
More self confidence,
A good work ethic,
Being adaptable,
Having good intentions,
Being creative,
and having good self-care.
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Stephen Covey - Voice
 Being effective as individuals and
organizations is no longer optional. We
are called to reach beyond to
greatness.
 Fulfillment
 Passionate execution
 Significant contribution
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Voice
Covey, 2005
 The 8th habit is to Find Your Own Voice and Inspire
others to Find Theirs.
Talent
Passion
Need
Conscience
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Voice
Covey, 2005
 At the center of all these converging
parts is Voice –
Unique, Personal, Significance.
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Why Voice?
 The Industrial Age Worker vs. The
Knowledge Worker – two different views.
 Industrial age workers – people are
replaceable, they can be controlled, (carrotstick) suppressed, potential and creativity
decreased. (holdover from Industrial age –
managed care mentality – Story of
consultation).
 People as things – Objects (objective).
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Why Voice?
 Knowledge worker age –
– Human beings are not things needing to be controlled,
they are Whole Persons, having body, mind, heart, and
spirit.
Mind – Use me Creatively
Heart – Treatment Kindly
Body – Pay me fairly
Spirit – work is meaningful and principles (ethics)
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Why Voice?
 People who succeed
have principles values that provide an
internal compass that
directs their
forethought and
evaluation of their
work.
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Why?
 Change the old paradigm to fit the new age.
 We live in an age of the knowledge worker, where
intellectual capital is supreme.
 Quality knowledge is so valuable that unleashing
its potential offers organizations an extraordinary
opportunity for value creation.
 Our greatest financial investment is the knowledge
worker. Consider what has been invested in the
knowledge workers in your organization.
 S. Covey, 2005
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The Challenge
 Industrial Age Worker paradigm has one set
of values
 Knowledge Age Worker paradigm has
another.
 To change the paradigm we must first find
and acknowledge our own values that are
aligned with the new paradigm; help others
to find theirs, and be a trim-tab for change.
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Supervision Evaluations
 It has been my experience that supervision
works better when:
 I see the people I work with as stakeholders
 We together find our own voice
 The organization has their own line of sight
values that all “buy” into.
 Evaluation is multi modal – co-constructed
and collaboratively developed.
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 All of these will come together
when you supervise to increase
your co-supervisee’s
 Counseling Self-Efficacy (CSE) and
Personal Agency
 Use of Strength-Based Clinical
Values
 Supervisory Forethought, and
 Finding and Using Voice
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References
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Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory: And Agentic Perspective. Annual Review
of Psychology, 52:1-26. @ http://www.AnnualReviews.org
Covey, S.R. (2004). The 8th Habit. From Effectiveness to Greatness. New York, NY: Free
Press.
Edwards, J. K., & Chen, M.W. (1999). Strength-Based Supervision: Frameworks, Current
Practice, and Future Directions. A Wu-wei Method. The Family Journal, 7: 349 357.
Edwards, J.K., & Pyskoty, C. (2004). Clinical Training Needs of Illinois Counselors:
Survey of Internship Sites, ICA Journal of Counseling.
Larson, L. M. & Daniels, J.A. (1998). The Counseling Psychologist. 26, 179-218.
Seligman, M. ( ). Authentic Happiness
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