Peer Group Clinical Supervision Program Fosters Confidence and Professionalism

Abstract

The role and functions of school counselors have changed dramatically since the beginning of this century (Schmidt, 1993). The focus of school counseling has shifted from vocational guidance to more emphasis on the use of clinical skills, including individual and group counseling. a recent editorial in this journal, Sink (1999) noted, In my view, counselor educators are training nascent school counselors less from a clinical framework (p. ii). Consequently, a need for more effective supervision of school counselors has been recognized. However, a majority of school counselors do not receive adequate supervision; indeed, many are supervised by school administrators who are not trained in counseling (Borders & Usher, 1992; Roberts & Borders,1994; Sutton & Page, 1994). The American Association of Counseling and Development School Counseling Task Force (1989; now ACA) has declared a need for counseling supervision of practicing school counselors (hereafter referred to as clinical supervision). However, there are few studies on the effects of clinical supervision on veteran counselors of any type (Bernard & Goodyear,1992) and even fewer on school counselors. Research on the effects of clinical supervision on school counselors is rare (Borders & Usher, 1992; Crutchfield & Borders, 1997; Roberts & Borders, 1994; Sutton & Page, 1994). Just one ongoing clinical supervision program of school counselors was found in a literature search, but other than informal comments from the participants, the authors did not report formal evaluation findings (Henderson & Lampe, 1992). Two peer group, clinical supervision programs have been described and tested in the literature: Borders' (1991) Systematic Peer Group Supervision and Benshoff and Paisley's (1996) Structured Peer Consultation Model for School Counselors. When compared with no supervision, the quantitative research findings on both programs were not significant (Crutchfield & Borders, 1997). The counselor participants in Crutchfield and Borders' (1997) study were provided few opportunities for supervision training, and their involvement in clinical supervision was limited to the duration of the study. As a consequence of the lack of clinical supervision programs and research, there was a call for school systems to design and examine methods of school counselor supervision (Borders & Usher, 1992). Recent Counselor Educators and Supervisors Network (CESNET) exchanges underscore the necessity and the complexities of establishing clinical supervision of school counselors. a December 1998 article in Counseling Today, Hayes (1998) asserted that the need for practical and effective clinical supervision programs was a challenge the school counseling profession cannot ignore. Thus, the purpose of this article is to describe and present evaluation evidence of a long-term clinical supervision program for school counselors. Program History and Description Acting on the need for clinical supervision of school counselors, a director of counseling and guidance, in a suburban Virginia school system in 1994, initiated a clinical supervision training program for the system's elementary counselors. The system had attempted peer consultation previously, but the lack of supervision training and clear structure had impeded the program. Consequently, the school system employed a licensed practicing counselor and credentialed supervisor to design, train, and implement a peer group clinical supervision program for the elementary counselors (Getz, in press). The program's pragmatic design took 3 years to implement. the first year, the consultant met once a month with the entire group of counselors, 17 from K-5 schools, and 4 who were middle school sixth-grade counselors. Various clinical supervision methods were demonstrated and taught in nine clinical supervision training sessions for the counselors the first year. The consultant gave didactic presentations and used the Discrimination Model (Bernard, 1979) to discuss the different roles of supervisors (teacher, counselor, consultant) and the variation of focus in supervision (intervention, conceptualization, personalization). …