Clinical Supervision
Dr. Jeffrey L. Whitaker, Ph.D. is a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist, Affiliate Supervision Faculty for the Family Institute at Northwestern University, Clinical Fellow with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), AAMFT Approved Supervisor, National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE) approved clinical supervisor (ACS), and member of Delta Kappa International Marriage and Family Therapy Honor Society. Dr. Jeffrey provides clinical supervision for AAMFT clinical fellows and eligible Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy (COAMFTE) students seeking designation as an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, licensed mental health clinicians, counseling Students, and Candidates for licensure as a licensed marital and family therapist in the State of Oklahoma. Dr. Jeffrey also provides preceptorship for Allied Professionals in psychiatry, psychology, psychiatric nursing, social work, and professional counseling who are interested in incorporating a theory of the family into their clinical practice. Dr. Jeffrey’s approach to supervision is grounded in Bowen family systems theory (BFST). Dr. Jeffrey has extensive experience providing clinical supervision to military medical personnel, licensed clinicians, graduate counseling interns, candidates for licensure (pre-licensed professionals), and allied professionals. Dr. Jeffrey’s supervisees have the opportunity to participate in up to 5 hours of clinical supervision weekly.
Focus of Clinical Supervision:
- Assessment & Diagnosis
- Systemic Case Formulation
- Clinical Decision-Making
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Termination of Therapy
- Clinical Documentation
- Crisis Intervention & Management
- Working within the Healthcare Systems
- Working within the Educational Systems
- Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs)
- Develop better understandings about laws and professional ethics applicable to the practice of marriage and family therapy
Model of Supervision
Dr. Jeffrey’s model of supervision attends to various aspects of theory, development, and process. Theoretically, Dr. Jeffrey’s model of supervision is systemic and draws chiefly from BFST. Essential components of systemic supervision include: (1) Developing a systemic formulation; (2) forming a systemic alliance; (3) introducing and reinforcing the process of reframing; (4) attending to interactional patterns; and (5) understanding and applying evidence-based models (adapted from Bernard & Goodyear, 2019, pp. 26-27). Developmentally, Dr. Jeffrey’s model of supervision draws chiefly form the systemic cognitive-developmental model (SCDM). This model has Piagetian roots and focuses on assisting the supervisee in becoming more flexible and proficient when operating within and between the four cognitive orientations: (1) Sensorimotor; (2) concrete; (3) formal; and (4) dialectic (adapted from Bernard & Goodyear, 2019, pp. 36-37). Dr. Jeffrey’s approach to process draws principally from the discrimination model (DM). This model attends to three basic skills foci: (1) Intervention; (2) conceptualization; and (3) personalization. Within this model the supervisor assumes the role of teacher, counselor, or consultant depending on the supervisee’s competencies in pursuit of assisting their personal and professional development across the various foci (adapted from Bernard & Goodyear, 2019, pp. 46-49).
Philosophy of Supervision
The overarching purpose of the clinical supervision relationship is to cocreate a holding environment that can help contain uncertainties and overwhelmingness to facilitate growth of the supervisee’s personal and professional competencies while attending to the well-being of the larger public. This chapter of the supervisee’s developing career is characterized by rapid growth as the burgeoning clinician experiments with the skills of the helping professions and acquires new knowledges and understandings along their journey toward a preferred professional identity. That journey is peppered with successes, failures, ambiguities, and obstacles. The successful supervisee will use the holding environment of the supervision relationship to maintain a growth mindset in the presence of the opportunities and obstacles that define their journey.
Supervision Basics
Consistent with best practices in systemic clinical supervision, Dr. Jeffrey facilitates an intentional commingling of individual (1-2 supervisees) and small group (3-6 supervisees) supervision sessions. Whenever appropriate, Dr. Jeffrey incorporates teleconferencing technologies to ensure the timely delivery of supervision and to maximize supervisees’ opportunities to complete supervision requirements according to their preferred schedule. Dr. Jeffrey is happy to offer a flexible supervision schedule to help supervisees balance the needs of family, friends, recreation, academics, and clinical practice. For more information, please contact Dr. Jeffrey L. Whitaker, Ph.D. at 405.361.1754.
References
Bernard, J. M. & Goodyear, R. K. (2019). Fundamentals of clinical supervision (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Whitaker, J. L. (2020). Clinical supervision contract [Unpublished Document]. Northcentral University.