Philip F. Daniels, Ph.D., LMHC

             My supervision theory is an intentional integration of the Discrimination Model and Integrative Developmental Model and Discrimination. I will help my supervisee understand, integrate, and apply theoretical model(s), as well as emphasize self-care and establishing and maintaining appropriate boundaries. Supervision is also a safe place to create and accomplish achievable goals. My philosophy of challenging a supervisee is for their benefit and an opportunity for growth. I view supervision as a physical thinking pad with regard to how to best care for the client and grow as a counselor.

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             Developing my identity of supervisor has provided me with an opportunity to grow as I learn my roles and goals of supervision. I believe an essential goal is to establish a healthy working alliance with my supervisee that is safe and allows the counselor-in-training to be receptive to feedback, direction, and open-mindedness towards evolving into a competent counselor. The primary goal is the welfare of the client and without a healthy working alliance, I believe this may lead to possible harm of the client. Counselor development is another goal of supervision and I find it imperative that a supervisee be challenged in order to learn and grow from their supervision experience. This is very different from the classroom experience due to the personal nature of supervision. Additionally, the type of supervision (individual, group, live) will determine how the session will be held and the techniques utilized.

             This leads me to having multiple roles such as a mentor, advisor, consultant, and (limited) therapist. I believe that these roles are what make up the meta-role of supervisor. I reflect on my own relationships with my supervisors, apply the knowledge I am learning, and utilize my clinical experience to fulfill the role of supervisor in an ethical and competent manner.

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• As a mentor, I am a person that the supervisee can look up to and model my behavior, thus the importance of being ethical and professional.

• As an advisor, I am a go-to person that can help the supervisee navigate their way through training, licensure, and continued education.

• As a consultant, I am a sounding board for clinical cases to ensure the welfare of the client; this can also take the form of processing, challenging, teaching, role-playing, etc.

• Acting as a (limited) therapist is inevitability part of supervision when personal issues may impact clients’ welfare or professional functioning.  Supervisees are in a vulnerable position and as a supervisor it is imperative for me to have empathy as well as maintain the boundaries to know when to refer to personal therapy.

These roles may integrate within the session depending on what the supervisee brings to the session, in addition the level of the supervisee e.g. level 1, 2, 3, 3i. With intention I navigate my different roles to best serve the client through the supervisor.  In a moment, I may be consulting about a specific intervention which may lead into a teaching role about the theoretical basis, which then circles back to an advising role to find out how the supervisee will apply the new knowledge. 

             The overarching role and goal of my philosophy of supervision is the health of the client through the health of the supervisee. This is fulfilled through the growth and development of the supervisor, supervisee, and the client. In a recursive fashion, every supervision session should result in a learning moment for each individual involved. Point in fact, we all learn from each other and as a result we all grow and develop in different areas. This is an example of how my view of supervision is systemically oriented.

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           Throughout my supervision career both as a supervisee and supervisor I continue to grow both personally and professionally. The main area of growth is my confidence in my supervisor role and identity. Additionally, my knowledge has grown exponentially in supervision theory, application, and interventions. Furthermore, I have gained experiences as an individual supervisor for different counseling tracks (MHC, MFT, MSC), advance family therapy group supervision, and live supervision for couples counseling. My future goals are to continue working on applying supervision theory and skills in competent and intentional ways. I will continue receiving supervision for my own practice as well as work towards becoming an advance qualified supervisor.