Advanced Diploma Clinical Supervision

The working life of a counsellor, psychotherapist, social/youth worker, psychologist, nurse or indeed anyone in today’s caring professions, is both challenging and demanding. To do these jobs well, support in the form of supervised practice has become an important component of professional practice. Indeed, in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, supervisors are considered gatekeepers of the profession essentially, ensuring the standards and supports necessary for the protection of vulnerable people, providing active support of the helping professional and creating an environment in which the supervisee’s growth and wellbeing become a key focus of the therapeutic triad (client, supervisee, supervisor). This one-year programme is designed to train experienced practitioners within the health and social care domain to provide supportive, educational and managerial supervisory skills which they can bring to private practice or their workplace setting.
obtain a Advanced Diploma qualification from Middlesex University and will be eligible for professional accreditation with the Irish Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (IACP).

Supervisors play a vital role for qualified professionals, particularly in therapeutic and social care fields, where they provide support and guidance to supervisees. This course will provide a theoretical, ethical and skills based framework for students, allowing them to understand various models of supervision and how they may be applied in supervisory relationships. Students will learn the skills of supervision and be able to implement a range of approaches and methods to provide contemporary, ethical and professional practice. They will develop an awareness of how individuals and groups learn and how to use experiential learning and reflective practice as a basis of life-long learning. They will also gain skills in reflexivity, forming and managing supervisory contracts, giving/receiving effective feedback and the provision of effective supervisory reports. The course is integrative in approach, exploring the main theories and approaches to supervision informing effective practice. This programme is quality assured by Middlesex University. Participants will receive a Middlesex award on successful completion.

Course Content:
Theories and Skills of Supervision
Ethical and Professional Issues in Supervision
Group and Organisational Supervision

Learning Outcomes:
To review, understand and critically reflect on theories of clinical supervision.

To understand developmental models of supervision and be able to apply them in supervision practice.

To isolate tasks, functions and roles of supervision and learn how to work with them in actual supervision sessions.

To learn the skills of being a supervisor and be able to implement them in work with supervisees.

To be able to help supervisees use supervision effectively.

To be aware of how individuals and groups learn and how to use experiential learning as a basis of learning in supervision.

To work with supervisees in one-to-one and group settings.

To be ethically aware and to have learned a process of ethical decision – making in supervision.

To learn the skills of reflexivity.

To be able to set up, contract for, maintain and terminate a supervisory arrangement effectively.

To be able to give and receive feedback.

To write clear and honest supervisory reports.

To be sensitive to the impact of organisations on supervision practice.

Additional Course Requirements:
25 hours of external supervised Supervision Practice (Course includes 25 hours of internal supervised Supervision practice)

7 hours external supervision of Supervision Practice

Leading To The Award Of: Middlesex University Advanced Diploma In Supervision