Clinical Supervision Activities for Increasing Competence and Self-Awareness

Providing tested guidance for clinical supervisors of mental health professionals, editors Roy A. Bean, Sean D. Davis, and Maureen P. Davey draw from their own backgrounds in training, private practice, and academe, as well as from an international panel of experts representing various mental health fields to provide activities and best practices that allow therapists to better serve an increasingly diverse set of clients and issues.

While clinical skills are easily observed, the more subtle areas of self-awareness, or exploring unexamined judgments are more difficult to spot and to provide supervision and guidance for. The numerous experiential activities included will help supervisors and the mental health professional they supervise develop their skills and techniques around:

• Intuition
• Empathy
• Self-awareness
• Mindfulness
• Multicultural awareness
• Perspective taking

The book covers both clinical as well as diversity-focused competence and awareness, and suggests various forms of activities, including research exercises, reflection, journaling, and more. Each activity includes measurement metrics as well as additional resources that help clinicians identify the best activity for a given situation. Appropriate for clinicians at every level and from a multitude of backgrounds, these tried and tested best practices can be used in clinical supervision, as a class assignment, or to facilitate professional growth.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Part I: Core Clinical Competence and Self-Awareness 1

Chapter 1 Facilitating Clinician Development Using Themes of Personal Issues 3
Karni Kissil, Alba Nino, and Harry J Aponte

Chapter 2 Exploring the Person-of-the-Therapist for Better Joining, Assessment, and Intervention 9
Alba Nino, Karni Kissil, and Harry J Aponte

Chapter 3 The Empathy Game 15
Trent S Parker and Kristyn M Blackburn

Chapter 4 Seeing through the Eyes of the Other Using Process Recordings 21
Dana A Schneider, Elizabeth Rodriguez-Keyes, and Elizabeth King Keenan

Chapter 5 Discovering Acceptance and Nonjudgment through Mindfulness 27
Jaclyn D Cravens and Jason B Whiting

Chapter 6 Encouraging Self-Reflection in the Reflective Listening Process 33
Paul Burke and Melinda Hohman

Chapter 7 Enhancing Self-Awareness Using Feedback Reflection 41
Elisabeth Esmiol and Rebecca Partridge

Chapter 8 Exploring Personal Roles and Themes in Clinical Training 49
Alyssa Banford and Rachel Tambling

Chapter 9 Addressing Resistance to Behavior Change 55
Rebecca Mirick

Chapter 10 Teaching Self-Compassion to Decrease Performance Anxiety in Clinicians 61
Anna I Bohlinger, Jeni L Wahlig, and Stephanie Trudeau-Hern

Chapter 11 Reconnecting with the Motivation to Become a Clinician 67
Bob Gillespie and Julia O’Reilly

Chapter 12 Giving a Voice to Clinicians-in-Training about Their Concerns 73
Yudum Akyil, Binh Pham, and Norja Cunningham

Chapter 13 A New Experience with the Family of Origin 79
Sean D Davis and Armando Gonzalez-Cort

Chapter 14 Exploring Conflict and Its Importance to Clinician Development 85
Bridget Roberts-Pittman and Anna M Viviani

Chapter15 Examining the Source of Negative Self-Beliefs 91
Larry D Williams and Andrae Banks

Chapter 16 Creating a Safe Learning Environment for Clinicians through Group Discussion and Supervision 97
J Christopher Hall

Chapter 17 Increasing Competence for Working with International and National Disasters 103
Noah Hass-Cohen, Thomas Veeman, Karina A Chandler-Ziegler, and Andrew Brimhall

Chapter 18 Developing Supervision Skills for Resiliency and Decreased Vicarious Trauma 111
Noah Hass-Cohen and Karina A Chandler-Ziegler

Chapter 19 Dealing with Trauma Using Self-Awareness and Self-Care 119
Kami L Schwerdtfeger

Chapter 20 Aligning Organizational and Individual Culture and Values 127
Sue Steiner and Kathy Cox

Chapter 21 Collaborative Reflective Training for Mental Health Clinicians in Medical Settings 135
Barbara Couden Hernandez and Lana Kim

Chapter 22 Using Medical Genograms in Clinical Supervision 141
Tai Justin Mendenhall and Stephanie Trudeau-Hern

Part II: Diversity-Focused Competence and Self-Awareness 149

Chapter 23 Increasing Awareness of Multicultural Issues in Therapy and Supervision 151
Karen L Caldwell and Shari Galiardi

Chapter 24 Exploring Other Perspectives of Gender and Ethnicity 159
Roy A Bean, Alexander L Hsieh, and Adam M Clark

Chapter 25 Understanding Power Imbalances in the Clinical Encounter 165
Kimberly A E Carter, Jayme R Swanke, and Venessa A Brown

Chapter 26 Inviting a Better Understanding of Privilege and Disadvantage 173
Peggy McIntosh

Chapter 27 Reexamining Social Class, Ethnicity, and Available Resources 183
Kerri E Newman, Haley V Pettigrew, Cecily R Trujillo, and Sara A Smock Jordan

Chapter 28 Experiencing Poverty through a Large-Group Role-Play 191
Andrae Banks and Larry D Williams

Chapter 29 Fostering Awareness of Ability and Disability through Group Inclusion and Exclusion 197
Kathleen Nash

Chapter 30 Enhancing Self-Awareness for Working with Deaf Clients 205
Mary C Hufnell

Chapter 31 Preparing Clinicians to Work with Co-occuring Disabilities and Substance Abuse 213
Ally DeGraff, Phillip Sorenson, Alane Atchley, and Sara Smock Jordan

Chapter 32 Empowering Clinicians to Work with African Immigrants through Game Playing 219
Tohoro Francis Akakpo

Chapter 33 Group Role-Plays and the Immigrant Experience 225
Chandra Lasley

Chapter 34 Supervising Foreign-Born Clinicians in the United States 233
Senem Zeytinoglu, Yudum Akyil, and Karni Kissil

Chapter 35 Challenging Heterosexual and Cisgender Privilege in Clinical Supervision 239
Monique D Walker and Ana M Hernandez

Chapter 36 Exploring Perceptions of LGBTQ Individuals and Couples 247
Bethany Luna, Cody Heath, Anna Andrews, Sara A Smock Jordan, and Monica Higgins

Chapter 37 Discovering Compassion for Victims of Domestic Violence 255
Lisa Vallie Merchant and Jason B Whiting

Chapter 38 Developing Empathy for Co-victims of Rape 263
Karen Rich

Chapter 39 Increasing Awareness for Working with Overweight Clients 271
Keeley J Pratt and Jaclyn D Cravens

Chapter 40 Dealing with Addiction and Recovery 281
Fred P Piercy and Manjushree Palit

Chapter 41 Experiencing the Addiction Recovery Process 287
Angela B Bradford, Scott A Ketring, and Thomas A Smith

Chapter 42 Increasing Sensitivity to Ageism 293
Lori Cluff Schade

Chapter 43 Helping Clinicians Develop End-of-Life Awareness 301
Michael N Humble, Melinda W Pilkinton, Kilolo Brodie, and Jennifer L Johnson

About the Editors 307

About the Contributors 309

Author Index 317

Subject Index 325

Roy A. Bean, PhD, LMFT, is an Associate Professor and Program Director in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Brigham Young University. He also maintains a private practice where he sees children and families.

Sean D. Davis, PhD, LFMT, is an Associate Professor and Site Director for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Alliant International University. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and maintains a private practice in marriage and family therapy.

Maureen P. Davey, PhD, LMFT, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Couple and Family Therapy at Drexel University and also maintains a private practice where she sees individuals, couples, and families.

Praise for Clinical Supervision Activities for Increasing Competence and Self-Awareness

“This is a great book that provides clinicians with wonderful experiential activities crafted to help them develop greater self-awareness and clinical competence. Many of the chapters are outstanding and contain excellent clinical examples that are well written. I highly recommend this book to students, instructors, and clinicians who wish to sharpen their professional skills.”
—Frank M. Dattilio, PhD, ABPP, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

“Bean, Davis, and Davey have created a unique resource for clinicians and clinicians in training that targets essential professional and personal skills and is filled with challenging and thought-provoking specific exercises guaranteed to enhance the quality of practice. This book should be an essential part of every curriculum for the training of psychotherapists.”
—Jay Lebow, PhD, LMFT, ABPP, The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

“This pioneering volume offers copious examples of how to teach and develop the seemingly intangible, yet empirically grounded, aspects of therapy like self and client awareness, empathy, and cultural competence. The volume is a treasure trove for teachers, supervisors, and students.”
—Doug Sprenkle, PhD, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy/Human Development and Family Studies, Emeritus, Purdue University, College of Health and Human Sciences, Indiana

Proven techniques for self-reflective clinical practice

Clinical Supervision Activities for Increasing Competence and Self-Awareness contains over 40 of the most well-tested and effective self-awareness training activities. The editors drew on expertise from a range of mental health professions, including family therapy, social work, nursing, and more. The result is a collection of strategies for training clinicians to be more intra-personally, interpersonally, and interculturally competent. These activities are designed for professionals and students engaged in training, supervising, and self-guided professional development. You’ll learn how to teach core skills and diversity-related awareness, from developing empathy to examining negative self-beliefs to dealing with substance abuse.

Each activity includes a research-based rationale, clear instructions, examples, and methods for measuring progress. Created by expert mental health researchers and clinician educators, these activities are proven to help supervisors work with diverse learner populations and to help those learners develop the attributes and skills that lead to positive outcomes.