Counselling Psychologist

Registered Psychologist, Ontario. Certificate #4269

   
 
 
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Psychotherapy supervision
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Supervision of Psychotherapy


I have been supervising psychotherapists or therapists-in-training for decades, first as a professor, training counseling psychology master's and doctoral students, and now from my private practice, supervising practicing psychotherapists and psychologists (not yet fully licensed for autonomous practice).

I provide three kinds of services, depending on your needs:

1. Supervised Practice:
Supervised practice means I provide supervision of your full practice (your entire client load) while you are working on becoming a full member of your College (either the College of Psychologists of Ontario, or some other college such as the College of Psychotherapists of Ontario). If you are in the process of registration as a psychologist I am familiar with the requirements (although you should also be familiar with them and ensure that we meet them). If you are needing supervised practice for another college it is your responsibility (a) to be sure that your College accepts the supervision of a registered psychologist and (b) to know what the requirements are (e.g., hours per month of supervision, informed consent requirements, required documentation, etc.). My fees will depend on the number of clients I am supervising. My fee structure is designed to cover my time spent both providing the supervision session and also reading case notes outside of that session. The fee thus varies depending on how many clients I am responsible for supervising.

2. Supervision of your work with only some of your clients:
If you are not required by your college to have supervision of all of your clients, you may prefer to conserve time and money by only receiving supervision on a subset of your clients. Doing so can provide many of the benefits of full supervision (e.g., professional skill development and improved client services) at significantly lower cost. You might, for example, choose to only request supervision on those clients who have insurance coverage. Because some insurance companies will only reimburse for services performed or supervised by a psychologist, it may be to your client's financial benefit if your work is supervised by a psychologist. Getting supervision on your work with these clients also has other benefits: It may benefit you by helping you to continue developing your skills, and it may benefit your clients because they will be benefitting from my expertise as well as your own. To help cover the cost of supervision, you might choose to charge a bit more than your usual hourly rate for sessions that have this 'value added' service. My fee for supervision takes the form of an hourly fee for the supervision session plus fees (based on number of clients and client sessions) for my time reading your case notes.

3. Consultation services:
For a clinician in private practice or a provider in a small agency that cannot provide on-site supervision, consultation may be the best option. In this model, I am not supervising but rather consulting about whichever clients or issues you might need help with at any given time. In this case, you would simply pay my usual hourly rate (the same rate I charge for psychotherapy) and you would bring up whatever cases or issues you would like help with. I would not be responsible for your work with the clients we discuss, and you would not give me their identifying information. I would simply be a resource for you to get some guidance or a second opinion on how you might choose to proceed. This can be particularly useful when you are not making progress with a client, or when your own issues may cause blind spots in your work, or when you are seeing clients with issues you don't yet have a great deal of experience with. It can be a nice safety net for practitioners in solo private practice or other small settings where practice can feel isolating and where it may be hard to find colleagues to consult with on difficult cases. Consultation is less costly than supervision, since I do not have to read your case notes, keep records on your clients, or be involved with billing. Consultation sessions can be regular/recurring or scheduled sporadically as needed--whichever you prefer.