Clinical Supervision

Individual and dyadic supervision, in person in Huntsville and virtually across Ontario.

I provide independent clinical supervision to registered social workers in Ontario who provide psychotherapy or clinical services to adults.

Supervision is a place to think about the work. It is also a place to think about yourself as a clinician.

Clinical practice asks a great deal of us.

We listen to difficult things. We make judgments with incomplete information. We sit with uncertainty. We develop relationships with people while maintaining professional boundaries and carrying ethical responsibilities that do not disappear when the session ends.

Over time, we also develop habits.

There are clients we feel protective of. Clients who frustrate us. Situations that make us more directive or less confident. Places where our own histories, values and assumptions enter the room.

Good supervision gives us somewhere to notice those things.

I am interested in the decisions you make as a clinician and what is shaping them. I will ask questions and tell you what I notice. I may challenge an assumption or ask you to consider the situation from another position.

I don't expect either of us to know everything.

When I don't know something, I will say so. We can identify what we need to find out and where the appropriate authority or resource sits. That may include legislation, College standards, ethics and privacy requirements, current research, or consultation with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers when appropriate.

Knowing when to seek consultation is part of competent practice.

Social workers practice inside systems.

A clinician with an impossible caseload does not have a time-management problem. A social worker experiencing burnout may be responding to conditions that would exhaust most people. Someone building a private practice has to think about money as well as clinical care.

These are professional issues. They are also structural ones.

Capitalism shapes the organizations we work within and the pressure to produce more with fewer resources. Patriarchy continues to shape expectations around care, emotional labour and who is expected to provide it. Racism and other forms of structural inequality affect our clients, our colleagues, our organizations and the profession itself.

I think those things belong in supervision.

They don't explain every difficulty, and recognizing them doesn't remove our professional responsibility. They help us understand the conditions in which we are trying to practise well.

Sometimes we need to work on the clinician.

Sometimes we need to name what the system is asking the clinician to absorb.

My role is to help you develop your own clinical judgment and become increasingly able to examine your practice.

That can include case formulation, boundaries, ethics, risk, use of self, professional identity, difficult therapeutic relationships, uncertainty and decision-making.

It can also include the realities of being a social worker.

You may be trying to build a private practice and discovering that being a clinician and running a business require different skills. You may be working in social services with a caseload that makes the kind of practice you were trained to provide difficult. You may be questioning whether you can remain in your current role, or even in the profession.

I approach supervision from a constructivist perspective. I am not the expert standing outside your practice with the correct answer.

We are looking at the work together.

There is also power in the supervision relationship, and I think it is important to acknowledge it. Supervision involves leadership. It involves emotional labour. It requires us to be able to disagree, recognize when something has gone wrong between us, and repair the relationship when necessary.

My aim is to model the same things I hope you can increasingly bring into your own clinical work: curiosity, accountability, thoughtful use of power and the capacity to remain engaged when something is difficult.

I also share resources. Over the years I have developed clinical tools and collected research, frameworks and materials that I use in my own practice. When something is relevant to your work, I'm happy to make those resources available.

Workplace supervision has an organizational function. Your supervisor may assign your work, monitor performance or be responsible for decisions that affect your employment.

That changes the relationship.

Independent clinical supervision creates a different kind of space. I am not evaluating your job performance and I do not report to your employer.

That gives us room to examine the organization itself, including situations where your professional judgment, the needs of a client and the demands of the workplace may be pulling in different directions.

I provide supervision exclusively to registered social workers in Ontario whose clinical practice is with adults.

I do not provide clinical supervision for practitioners whose primary clinical work is with children.

My own background includes nearly two decades in child welfare practice and leadership, along with psychotherapy, university teaching, professional training, research and clinical investigation.

Supervision is available virtually throughout Ontario. Dyadic pairs are welcome. 

Individual clinical supervision
75 minutes | $225

Case-focused supervision
50 minutes | $180

If you are looking for ongoing supervision, we can begin with a consultation to talk about your practice, what you want from supervision and whether the way I work is a good fit.