Supervision (counselling) Case-Study

Guidance to writing external Supervision & Supervisee Assessment Case Review (within counselling client sessions)

The case review must be structured using each of the 7 headings below. It should provide a coherent summary of your supervision work with ONE supervisee drawn from your supervision work during the life of the course. You need to give specific examples from your work throughout, which may include brief examples of what was said where relevant, but the case review should not be a transcript nor should it be a session by session account. Confidentiality must be ensured at all times.

The case review should:

» reflect a sound underpinning of integrated supervision theory and skills;
» evidence a clear understanding of the supervision relationship and the supervision process including how this impacts on the therapeutic relationship between counsellor and client;
» show how you work within, and support your supervisee to work within, an ethical framework;
» critically reflect on how your use of supervisory supervision enhanced your work.

Common mistakes are – being unable to integrate supervision skills and theory sufficiently, paying insufficient attention to the counsellor and client relationship, lack of application of learning from own supervisory supervision, not showing adequate critical reflection and evaluation, running out of words by sections 6 and 7.

Please reference your work accurately and include a bibliography at the end. Attach the signed cover sheet given in your Candidate Guide.
The total word count – including all quotations – must be between 3,000 – 3,500 words. Case studies exceeding the maximum word count of 3,500 will be deemed Not Proficient.
Footnotes and the bibliography are not included in the word count. Appendices and other material are not required and will not be marked.
The case review does not have to be completed under exam conditions.
The review should be written on a word processor, using double spacing, wide margins and page numbering.

You must present your answers under the 7 headings given below:

1. Context and boundaries of work:
• Describe the context in which you work showing understanding of the boundaries and ethical framework for your supervision practice.

You must:
 Describe the context and setting where you provide supervision.
 Describe how you negotiated a supervisor/supervisee agreement with this particular supervisee..
 Explain how an ethical framework informs your work as a supervisor.

2. Assessment
• Use a coherent framework to arrive at an initial and on-going assessment of your supervisee’s developmental needs.

You must:
 Show how you applied your understanding of a coherent framework to assess your supervisee’s initial supervisory needs.
 Give examples of how you recognised and responded to your supervisee’s changing needs.

3. Awareness of diversity issues:
• Work with awareness of diversity issues

You must:
 Critically reflect on issues of diversity between you and your supervisee
 Show you worked with these issues to enhance the supervision relationship
 Give examples of how you supported and challenged your supervisee to work with issues of diversity in the client work.
4. Development of the supervision relationship and the supervision process:
• Work with aspects of the supervision relationship and the supervision process.

You must:
 Critically evaluate the quality of the supervisory relationship and give examples of how it contributed to the supervision process.
 Give examples of how you supported and challenged your supervisee to understand and work with the counselling relationship for the benefit of the client.

5. Use of self-awareness in the supervisory process:
• Reflect on how you used and encouraged self-awareness in the supervisory process.

You must:
 Critically reflect on your internal response to your supervisee and show how you used self-awareness to enhance the supervisory process.
 Evaluate how you used supervision skills to enable your supervisee to use self-awareness to enhance the counselling process.

6. Theory underpinning skills
• Work within a coherent framework of supervision theory and skills.

You must:
 Describe ONE theoretical model of supervision and give examples of how this informed your supervision work.
 Give examples of how the supervision work impacted on the supervisee’s work with their client.

7. Use of supervisory supervision:
• Use supervisory supervision to inform and support your work with this supervisee.

You must:
 Critically reflect on how supervisory supervision has supported and challenged you in your supervision work with this supervisee.
 Give specific examples of when you have used insights and learning from supervisory supervision to inform and enhance your work with this supervisee.

Marking scheme:
Each section of the case review is awarded between 0 and 3 marks on the following basis:
0 = no evidence 1 = minimum evidence
2 = satisfactory evidence 3 = robust evidence
Candidates must achieve at least ONE mark in each section and an overall mark of 11 out of 21 to be assessed as Proficient. Candidates can be awarded ½ marks.
Please note that each section carries equal marks (3) so you are advised to take this into account when deciding how much to write in each section.