Clinical Supervision
Dr. Jeffrey L. Whitaker, Ph.D., LMFT, CFTP provides clinical supervision for counseling Students and Candidates for licensure as a licensed marital and family therapist in the State of Oklahoma. Jeffrey is also happy to provide clinical supervision for allied professionals (psychiatry, psychology, psychiatric nursing, social work, professional counseling) who are interested in incorporating a theory of the family into their clinical practice. Jeffrey is a licensed martial and family therapist, OK# 1280, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) clinical fellow and approved supervisor, International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP) certified family trauma professional (CFTP), and member of Delta Kappa International Marriage and Family Therapy Honor Society. Jeffrey received his Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Science and Ethics and Master of Science in Counseling, Marital and Family Therapy from Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Jeffrey is a doctoral candidate in Marriage and Family Therapy with an emphasis on Child and Adolescent Therapy at National University. Jeffrey has received postgraduate training in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), hypnosis, interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), internal family systems (IFS), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and narrative therapy. Jeffrey has also received training in managing aggressive behavior (MAB) from the University of Oklahoma and therapeutic crisis intervention (TCI) from Cornell University. Jeffrey’s theoretical approach is a comingling of modern and postmodern theories that includes Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST), object relations family therapy, and narrative therapy. Jeffrey has experience providing clinical supervision to military medical personnel in the areas of pediatrics and emergency medicine. Jeffrey also has experience supervising graduate students in marriage and family therapy and candidates for licensure. Jeffrey is currently a clinical associate with Cornerstone Counseling & Consulting, Inc. and the clinical director of the Outdoor Achievement Group, L.L.C., both located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Model of Supervision
Jeffrey’s model of supervision attends to various aspects of theory, development, and process. Theoretically Jeffrey’s model of supervision is systemic and draws chiefly from BFST and object-relations family therapy. 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 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). 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 abilities 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 will be 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
To be licensed in the State of Oklahoma as a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist a candidate for licensure must accrue a minimum of 1000 hours of direct client contact across a minimum of 24 months. A minimum of 250 hours must include direct client contact conducted with two or more members of a relational system. Supervision requirements are 6.25 hours of supervision for every 42 hours of client contact with a maximum of 42 hours of direct client contact hours counted in any 4-week period. Total face-to-face supervision must be at least 150 hours with no more than 75 hours accrued during group supervision and no more than 75 hours accrued using a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act compliant synchronous audio/video platform. Two in vivo or videotaped or audiotaped observations are required during each 6-month reporting period. Consultation with the candidate’s on-site supervisor is required minimally one time during each 6-month reporting period. Documentation of supervised hours, evaluation of competence, date of observations, and date of consultation with the on-site supervisor must be submitted semiannually. Consistent with best practices in systemic clinical supervision Jeffrey is happy to facilitate an intentional commingling of individual (1-2 supervisees) and small group (3-6 supervisees) supervision sessions. Whenever appropriate Jeffrey incorporates teleconferencing technologies to ensure the timely delivery of supervision and maximize the supervisee’s opportunities to complete supervision requirements according to their preferred schedule. 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 Jeffrey L. Whitaker, M.S., LMFT, CFTP at 405.361.1754 or email explore@outdoorachievement.com.
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.