Supervision and Consultation help therapists and clients achieve their goals

What do you need to be a good therapist? What should you look for in a mental health counselor?

These are big questions with a lot of different answers, but a couple of things are true no matter what:

• good therapists participate in professional peer consultation on a regular basis

• good therapists receive required supervision for licensure

If your therapist is working toward, or has completed supervision for licensure, you can trust that they are meeting professional requirements to practice therapy. If your therapist is engaging in professional consultation groups, you can trust that they are taking the extra steps to give and get mentorship and perspective from other professionals. These are good signs that your therapist takes their job seriously and has your best interests in mind. Of course, you still need to do your due diligence to ensure you trust your therapist and that they are a good match for you.

Supervision and Consultation can help therapists and clients achieve their goals.

How can supervision and consultation help therapists reach their goals? How can supervision and consultation help clients reach their goals?

Supervision allows therapists space to learn in one to one and group settings, how to be a therapist in practice. Therapists complete 2-4 years of graduate school and internship before they can practice therapy in a professional setting. After this, therapists can apply for state licensure as an associate therapist. This title allows new therapists to work under seasoned therapists for continued guidance and mentorship. Therapists may take up to 6 years and 3000 hours to complete these supervised hours. Once achieved, a therapist can begin their “full” licensed career. So, supervision is a pretty important part of the therapist’s journey.

While under supervision or after completing licensure, it is still important for therapists (especially those in private practice) to be able to consult professionally with one another. This can be done with one to one consultations, or more often, in a group consultation format where therapists get together and discuss therapy themes, interventions, and do cross referrals to best support clients with their therapy goals. So you can see that a therapist who participates in consultation groups may be better able to support a client who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts or self harm behaviors, someone who may need additional support for domestic violence or substance abuse, or a client who is experiencing psychosis or other distressing and life disrupting symptoms.

When your therapist is supported through supervision and consultation, they are better able to support you in reaching your therapy goals because they are taking care of their professional needs and goals. So it’s a good idea to ask your therapist (or a therapist in a free consultation appointment) if they are receiving supervision or are participating in consultation groups.

How can a therapist find a supervisor or consultation group?

There are many resources for therapists to connect with a supervisor. The department of health and other organizations have directories for approved supervisors like this one where you can look up who is an approved supervisor and how to contact them. Other directories like Psychology Today may list approved supervisors too. Another option that therapists can find not only a supervisor, but also consultations groups is on social media, such as Facebook groups for therapists or Instagram.

I also provide supervision and consultation in individual and group formats. I am an approved supervisor in Washington state and have hosted a therapists’ consultation group since 2020. I welcome new associates and fully licensed professionals to my consultation group, and provide one to one and group supervision for associate counselors.

If you would like to know more, please reach out and let’s connect. If you would like to boost your positive social media contact, please follow me on social media and share with your friends!