Show Notes

Kayla: Welcome everyone to The Designer Practice Podcast. I’m your host, Kayla Das. Today we have Chris Curry, clinical supervisor and owner of Ontario Supervision with us on the show.

Hi Chris. Welcome to the show. It’s great to have you here.

Chris: Thanks so much, Kayla. It’s great to be here. I’m really excited to talk about clinical supervision. My favourite topic.

Kayla: In today’s episode, we’ll be discussing how clinical supervision can help therapists tune into their therapeutic style. Chris, after our last conversation a couple weeks ago, I had this a-ha moment that business coaching and clinical supervision are actually like steps to one another. When it comes to private practice, I’ve realized that business coaching is step one of the process. Getting clients inside of your practice. And then step two is when you have clients that you work with in your private practice. Having that ongoing support through a clinical supervisor can help ensure best practices in terms of therapeutic needs of clients, regulatory requirements, ensuring what they are met, and then of course managing ongoing mindset blocks that might come up as being a therapist and a private practice owner.

Chris: Yeah, you’re exactly right, Kayla. And that’s something I’ve noticed as well is the business coaching aspect almost needs to co-exist with the clinical supervision. It was why I was so happy to have met you and to hear that you are helping therapists with the business side of it.

Thankfully, I also have a bit of a business background, myself, so I’m able to somewhat help on the periphery with that. But obviously our specialty is the clinical part. But that does not stop us from getting lots and lots of questions about the business part. And what I always like to say is most therapists didn’t get into therapy because they wanted to be business owners. They got into therapy because they wanted to be therapists.

So sometimes people go into private practice without necessarily realizing just how extensive some of the business details are. So, I’m really glad that both of our services are out there and can peacefully co-exist with one another because certainly therapists need a little bit of both.

Clinical Supervision and Private Practice

Kayla: I completely agree. And I’m sure we’re going to talk about more about this in the episode, as well. But when I think of clinical supervision, specifically when it comes to private practice, I think of it as the glue that keeps the administrative side and the therapeutic side of running a private practice together.

Because unlike when therapists work in agencies. We don’t have access to other colleagues or supervisors, at least, at our fingertips. And we typically work solo, unless we have a group practice. And, having that ongoing support, guidance and feedback that a clinical supervisor can provide is invaluable.

Chris: That’s so true. And it’s not only the clinical supervisor. So, at Ontario Supervision, I like to provide lots of group clinical supervision sessions, for a few reasons. First of all, it’s better to get a whole bunch of perspectives and then make a decision than it is to just get one perspective. Although I do have specialized training in clinical supervision in a fair amount of experience, I don’t know everything and I don’t claim to. So often the group will come to suggestion, not necessarily a solution, but a suggestion for the therapist that I would not have even considered myself. So that is what really, I think is the glue that holds a private practice therapist together is that weekly or biweekly meeting. Because even though they’re not in the same city as each other, or necessarily even work with the same client base, if they’re in private practice, they’re having the same issues. They’re asking about what do I do when a client cancels within the 24-hour window? A lot of practical things like that come up. Or new changes in the regulatory framework. Advances in artificial intelligence, that’s actually something that has come up quite often in clinical supervision as of late.

So, if you were working on your own business with no colleagues and you didn’t have clinical supervision, it can be a very lonely existence. And I’ve heard that from therapists, especially since the pandemic and a lot of services moved online. Therapists are also a part of that group and many of them have moved online. And now that we’re coming, hopefully, to the other side of the pandemic, a lot of people are starting to realize that maybe working from home every day is not the best thing for our mental health. So, we’re therapists but we’re notoriously bad at considering our own mental health. So that’s something that I talk about in group supervision is what’s that balance? For some people working two days at a private practice in the city and three days, virtual is the perfect balance. Some people do four days virtual one day in person. Some people do no in-person. Some people do no virtual. But you got to try out these different ways of doing things before you can figure out what works for you.

So, therapy has changed drastically in the past three years. A few years ago, you would not hear even the word online therapy. And now it’s so common that it’s actually probably just as used or if not used more than in-person therapy. So, the field changes very often, very quickly and it’s just good to have a group of people that you trust, you get to know after a few sessions together, you get to have a little bit of a bond there, bounce ideas off of, and hopefully make it the whole experience a little less lonely.

Kayla: No, I agree. Before we get down to the clinical supervision rabbit hole, which I’m super excited to get to, I would like you to introduce yourself. Where you’re from. Tell us a little bit about you, who you work with, your specialty. Who is Chris?

Guest Introduction

Chris: Yeah. Well, thanks for asking, Kayla. So, I’m actually from North Bay, Ontario, born and raised there. And I then moved to Ottawa, Ontario for most of my professional career. Then recently in the past five years or so, I’ve moved to a little small town, right on the St. Lawrence River, actually right across from the United States, Brockville, Ontario. It’s just a town of about 25,000 people. Really cute little town and I’ve just fell in love with the place and have set up shop here and I’m not going anywhere. So, I’ve had a varied background look, a lot of different interests. I had a major interest in criminology and criminal justice matters. So that brought me into working as a therapist in the forensic system in a few different capacities. So, I’ve worked in forensic hospitals, I’ve also worked in forensic jail. So that’s a jail for people who are in custody, who also have concurrent mental health and, addiction needs. So, I did that for quite a while. I find the population in facilities to be really fascinating and really fun to work with. And a lot of people would be shocked to hear that. But I’ve had some of the most interesting conversations with clients I’ve ever had inside some of those facilities, and I’ve learned a ton from working in those facilities.

I’ve worked in community mental health, community addiction. I’ve done several private practices over the years, both in person and virtual. And then more recently, I’ve started to get into clinical supervision on a more a serious level. It was actually a colleague of mine who pointed out to me, because they were recently graduated from their Masters of Counselling and they were saying it’s really hard to find a supervisor. And, I just found that interesting. And then I looked into it and yeah, they were right. It can be difficult to find a clinical supervisor. So yeah, that’s when the business kind of idea was born. And, now we’re actually looking at even expanding and bringing on other clinical supervisors.

So, the goal always was to create a clinical supervision group practice as most of us are therapists in the room, so we all know what a group practice is, but there’s not many clinical supervision group practices. So, I was hoping to create a one-stop-shop for therapists in Ontario. We serve primarily people in the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. So, for people to just one click, look at a list of supervisors, schedule your first intake appointment if it’s a fit, and then go from there. So, we’re not quite there yet. But I hope to see us there in the next year or so.

Why a Therapist Might Want to Have a Clinical Supervisor

Kayla: That’s amazing because one of the things that I’ve noticed is that shortage of clinical supervisors. And when we think of, you know, clinical supervision, it is a requirement by, I’m pretty sure, almost all the regulatory boards are at least strongly, strongly encouraged, if not required.

But because there’s a shortage, it’s hard to find a clinical supervisor and I’m always asked do I provide clinical supervision? And I don’t at this point. But finding someone who is currently accepting therapists for clinical supervision is tough because many therapists who provide that clinical supervision, only do it as an extra income, not necessarily as a primary business like you do.

So, I love that that is something that you provide. So. when we think of therapists and supervision, why might a therapist want to have a clinical supervisor?

Chris: So, for a number of reasons as you touched on it is a requirement in many regulatory colleges. I can speak to the CRPO, our regulatory body in Ontario. All new therapists are required to have a certain amount of hours of clinical supervision. And then as you mentioned, as they progress in their career, it’s not as necessarily a requirement, but as you said strongly, strongly encouraged.

And I always tell my supervisees that you might not have to continue to do supervision for the rest of your career. It’s strongly advised if you want to have a long career. Because I’m sure Kayla you understood this, that unfortunately working in this kind of field, mental health therapy, can be a recipe for burnout for a lot of people.

And unfortunately, I’ve seen quite a few colleagues who are no longer in the business for that reason. And not that a clinical supervisor is going to prevent that completely. But you’re going to have a better chance of catching it before it gets out of control. So that’s something I’m always checking in with my supervisees about how’s their self-care? How are they managing their own feelings, you know? I actually, interestingly enough, also encourage them to have their own therapist if they feel it’s necessary because it’s such a hard job.

So, clinical supervision, it’s so many things, which is why I love it, and I’m fascinated by it. It’s talking about different clinical techniques. It’s about learning new styles but it’s also about preventing burnout, preventing you having to leave this career early. We want people to be able to retire as therapists. But it can be a tough gig if you don’t have the proper support. And a good clinical supervisor is going to be that support. There’s not many people in your life who will have the role of a clinical supervisor. They’re kind of a mentor. They’re kind of a coach. A little bit of a boss, but not really. They’re all these things, but when it comes down to it, they just want you to succeed.

And for me, that’s the most rewarding part about clinical supervision is often I’ve worked with clients who are fresh out of school, just trying to get a footing in this business. And, after several months of working together and then being in a bunch of groups and meeting other therapist they’re talking like they’ve been in the business their whole lives. It’s just fascinating to see and just incredible to see, so that I’ve had a number of clients, move on to have successful private practices and successful other jobs. So, it’s really cool.

But I wanted to also touch on, yeah, there is a definite lack of clinical supervisors. And that was what I noticed when I first started researching is most clinical supervisors are also full-time therapists and that’s their priority. And that’s fine. But the clinical supervision it’s the thing at the back of their mind is not their priority. So, they might have two or three spots open for clinical supervision.

Whereas myself in this business, the Ontario Supervision, we are focused on clinical supervision. That is our focus the client is the therapist, and that is our main focus. But yeah, there is definitely a disconnect right now between the demand for clinical supervision, and the supply, at least here in Ontario.

Clinical Supervision is more than just Clinical

Kayla: Yeah, and I love that you broke down what a clinical supervisor does because sometimes, when we think if we haven’t ever had a clinical supervisor, especially if we worked in an agency and we used our colleagues as that clinical supervision, that clinical supervisor title can sometimes feel like it’s all about the clinical stuff.

And of course, that’s a part of it. But what you’ve touched on is that human part of it, right? The helping the therapist to succeed. That support piece, that guidance, the helping them be their best selves inside and outside of their private practice.

Chris: Yeah, that’s exactly right. A lot of people get bogged down in the clinical part of it. And they might think it’s all going to be learning about this new therapy or that new therapy and very clinical and very serious and very business-like. And, of course, a lot of the sessions are quite serious, but a lot of them are also quite light. When things are going well that we celebrate that. We have a round table at the beginning of every group supervision. And so, I ask each client basically tell me something good that’s happened for you professionally this week. People can have a hard time coming up with things that are good. So that’s where I incorporate positive psychology, bringing gratitude in, celebrating the little victories because clinical supervision does not need to be scary. It does not need to be something you’re intimidated about it. It should be something that both parties are learning from, engaging from, and learning from each other. That’s another thing I always tell my clients is I learn so much every single supervision session that I would never in a million years learn in any other way. When you put a group of eight or nine therapists in a room together the insights that you, you will gather are just remarkable. And it just keeps me very excited and engaged in the process.

Kayla: It’s funny that you say that because I say to people who are just starting private practice and maybe haven’t even had their first client yet, sometimes, we’re worried about being ready or knowing all the answers before we start a private practice. It’s that we learn while we do, right? It’s not about having all the answers and clinical supervision’s very much the same. It’s about having that support.

Chris: Yeah, exactly. People think once they’ve finished their Master’s degree, that they should know everything there is to know about every type of therapy and every type of mental illness. That’s not reasonable. No one could know all of that. You’re going to learn by doing. Of course, the textbooks and the lectures and all that is helpful. We need that. But clinical supervision is a chance to kind of practice it and hear from others who are trying the same thing.

A perfect example is yesterday in clinical supervision. We had a general discussion about what is trauma and how to treat trauma and different perspectives on trauma. And I just prefaced it with we have eight therapists in the room here and I bet we all have a different view of how to approach trauma and those types of things. And we went around the room, but we had an incredible conversation that went 45 minutes straight and we all learned so much from one another. And I think it really opened our horizons to all the different various ways that you can look at trauma or even think about trauma or conceptualize it. And that would’ve never happened in a classroom. So, yeah. Never underestimate the power of eight therapists in a room together. There’s some pretty amazing things can happen.

Common Clinical Supervision Issues

Kayla: I agree. So, you touched on this question, but from your experience, what are some of the most common issues that are brought up in clinical supervision?

Chris: That’s a very good question. There are certainly a few themes. I would say the main theme is imposter syndrome. And for anyone listening who doesn’t know exactly what that is, it essentially describes that you feel like you’re an imposter, you’re not really a therapist. You might be thinking, “Why did anyone ever give me my license to be talking to people about their mental health?” You feel like woefully inadequate. You feel under-prepared. You feel under-educated. And it is something that quite literally, in my experience, every therapist feels. And, actually, a lot of therapists feel that throughout their career to various degrees. So that is a huge one. And that is unfortunately what leads to a lot of people early exiting the profession because they feel I’m in over my head, I can’t do this. I don’t know how I even got past school. And those kinds of thoughts happen on a regular basis for a lot of therapists. So, I always try to normalize that. It happens it, if it didn’t happen, that would be more of a concern. If you thought you knew everything and no one else could teach you anything, that would be very concerning. But the fact that you can understand that you don’t know everything is a good thing. And you’re not supposed to know everything. You’re going to learn by doing. Hearing that from me it might help, but I think hearing it from other peers, really helps in the group supervision session. So once someone brings up, “I’m really having bad imposter syndrome this week.” Three or four other people will jump in with their tails of imposter syndrome as well.

Other common themes will probably just be the business aspect as we kind of touched on. People are really intimidated by taxes, receipts, and all those kinds of mundane tasks, the accounting part. So, people have a lot of anxiety about that. And I think that more so than the clinical part, that is what prevents certain people from ever starting their own private practice. It isn’t necessarily that they have imposter syndrome and don’t think that they’re capable. It’s more, in my experience, that they don’t have the confidence that they’ll be able to handle the business part. So, I always tell people if you’ve learned therapy, you can learn the business part. It’ll come; it takes time. You go slow. You don’t have to have a thriving private practice in 20 minutes. You can take time. So, I would say, the business aspect of things does come up quite frequently, in imposter syndrome would probably be a close.

Therapy and Imposter Syndrome

Kayla: And it’s interesting that you said in imposter syndrome because I’ve actually never shared this publicly. But when I was doing my Bachelor of Social Work, I did my fourth-year placement in a therapy practice and I loved it. But the one thing I experienced was imposter syndrome. And my goal was always to open a private practice. Was always to open my own business. And from that placement, because no one had ever talked about imposter syndrome, I actually have never heard the term until many years later. And I realized that I experienced it because what I did is I avoided my MSW, my Masters, because I thought I wasn’t a good therapist or that I wouldn’t be a good private practice owner and if I wish we talked about it more. So, I’m glad to hear that through clinical supervision these are avenues that we can talk about it and educate ourselves, as well as hear about other people’s experiences when they had experienced it as well.

Chris: Exactly. And imposter syndrome can be really strong. The doubt that some therapists feel about themselves and their skills, it’s enough to push them into a completely new career. And if they didn’t have someone to bounce those feelings off of it could lead to some really good therapists having very short careers and ultimately the public suffers due to that. So I think the messaging really needs to be that yeah, imposter syndrome exists. You’re pretty much guaranteed to experience it at one point or another, and it doesn’t mean that you’re doing anything wrong or that you’re doing anything bad. It just means that you’re a human being person and you have human being person feelings and emotions. You’re not expected to be perfect. No one expects you to be perfect. You’re going to make mistake. As long as you learn from those mistakes, they’re not really mistakes in the end, are they? So, if there’s any therapists listening right now who are worried that they can’t cut it as a therapist. They’re just not right enough or organized enough or whatever, believe in yourself, you can do it. Everybody feels that. But if you can push through and get to the other side, you’re going to have an amazing career.

Kayla: Agree. And if you can go from imposter syndrome, like I did, to avoiding your masters, to getting your masters, to starting private practice, and now teaching people how to start private practices. If I could do that, you certainly can.

Chris: Exactly.

Hesitations and Worries that Prevent Therapists from Seeking Clinical Supervision

Kayla: So, are there any hesitations, worries, or fears that tend to show up for therapists and prevent them from even seeking clinical supervision?

Chris: Yeah, I think one of the fears comes from the imposter syndrome is really the fear of being judged. The fear of this clinical supervisor is going to uncover that I actually don’t know what I’m talking about or something like that. I think because there is an inherent power imbalance between clinical supervisor and supervisee, unfortunately. But I really want to try to lessen that as much as possible. 9 times out of 10, your clinical supervisor wants you to succeed. It should not be something to be intimidated about. But it can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have a previous rapport with your supervisor.

I was actually lucky enough early in my career to have worked at two different agencies and had two clinical supervisors at each of those agencies, which just happened to be incredible therapists. So, I was extremely fortunate to have met both of those people and I always remember how they talked to me when I was just learning the trade. And tried to replicate that they were encouraging. They didn’t get on my case, if I made a mistake, they would just encourage me to learn from it. They would allow me to not be perfect. They would allow me to make mistakes and that’s what I try to do, with the clients that I see. You’re not expected to be perfect.

It’s a really hard job. And that’s a probably another common thing that comes up obviously is, dealing with some really tough cases. As a clinical supervisor, I tend to only hear about the cases that the therapists are really struggling with. So, these can be really complicated cases involving histories of trauma, potential histories of abuse, sometimes mood disorders, sometimes psychosis, sometimes substance use. So, there’s a lot going on, so it can be very, very heavy in certain supervision sessions. But it needs to happen. Those conversations need to happen, especially for those complex cases because we get tunnel vision. We tend to just kind of see this is the only way to move forward for this client. And it really helps to have other people’s perspectives and then to give you a new lens. A lot of clients actually come in and just say “Chris, I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do with this client.” And what I usually say to that is, “Who’s working harder in this relationship? Is it you or is it the client?” And the answer is typically that they are working harder than the client.

So, with that response, I always urge them to gently put it back onto the client because I come from a line of thinking where the client is the expert in their lives. The client has the power to change their lives. The client has all the cards. We’re just there for the ride and to be a good guide. So, if you are feeling stuck, put it back on the client. And you can say that to a client. You can say, ” I kind of feel like we’re at an impasse here. I feel like we’re not moving. Do you feel that too?” And work on the problem together instead of taking on this huge amount of pressure that you, as the therapist has to fix this person. That’s not what we do. We’re not in the business of fixing people. So, the client is the one who’s going to be doing the fixing. We’re going to help them along the way. So, taking some of that pressure off of people I’ve found has been a huge change. Because whenever people are stuck, whenever they don’t know what to do with a client, it’s typically that they’re working way harder than the client and they need to recalibrate that balance.

How Clinical Supervision Can Help Therapists Tune Into Their Therapeutic Style

Kayla: Yeah. Thank you for that. The title of this episode is, how clinical supervision can help therapists tune into their therapeutic style. So how can therapists tune into their therapeutic style?

Chris: That’s a great question and that’s something I love talking about in clinical supervision. And it’s really interesting how I’ve been able to sort of observe certain supervisees over time. So, typically, when a supervises start seeing me, they are very focused on their one, two, or three modalities that they really, really like, internal family systems, EMDR, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. And a lot of new therapists don’t think about their style at all. It just isn’t something that necessarily comes up. They’re only focused on the techniques. So that’s a huge part of my role is explaining to therapists that our clients generally don’t care what your techniques are. They don’t care what you’ve been trained in. They want to feel heard. They want to feel connected. They want to feel understood. And they want to be, you know, encouraged.

A lot of our clients have never had anybody who will sit there and listen to them with a hundred percent attention and actually care about what they’re saying. And that is what is usually the predictor of success in a therapeutic relationship, is the therapeutic relationship itself. It isn’t necessarily if you used IFS or if you’re the best person at EMDR or if you’re the greatest person at DBT. It’s your relationship with the client. If the client thinks that therapy is going well, therapy will go well. It’s sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, of course, keep that base in the theory, you need the theory to guide your interventions. But it can’t all be theory and don’t jump into the theory too quick. You can’t jump into worksheets and thought records and all these kinds of things in a first session because that client doesn’t know you yet. They don’t trust you yet. They’re not bought into this yet. So, you have to have that buy-in over one, two, maybe even three sessions to really build that relationship. Don’t be stressed at the beginning of the counselling relationship. This is the easy part, you’re just building rapport. That is the main thing. Of course, you’re gathering some history, but the main thing is you’re building that rapport. So, a lot of therapists would get a referral like, “Oh no, this client has X, Y, and Z. I have to basically start fixing that the minute they walk into my office.” And that’s not how therapy works. That’s not how human interactions work. You don’t just walk up to a stranger and start telling them your life story. You have to trust someone in order to work on that type of stuff.

So, I found by letting therapists know that they don’t have to start doing interventions immediately, and that’s okay. It takes a lot of the pressure off. And I also ask them to explain that to the clients. Explain the therapeutic relationship. Explain what we’re doing here. We’re not going to jump right into trying to fix everything we just want to get to know each other. It takes a lot of the pressure off. So, a lot of people come into to clinical supervision thinking at a very kind of academic or intellectual level about therapy, and I try to remind them of the human element.

Kayla: I love that you’re sharing this because this is really from a business perspective, thinking of step one and step two. From a business perspective, I’ve noticed as well when we’re like advertising ourselves, whether it’s our Psychology Today profile, our social media, our website, whatever it is, is that we really focus on the therapeutic approach. And, of course that is important. That’s really what we’re trained and that is a part of the therapy process and what we use. But when we think of the client, from their eyes, they don’t know what approach you’re using.

Before they’re even your client, we can assume that they don’t know anything about therapeutic approaches. What they want is to get from point A to point B. Where they are now to whatever their desired solution is. So, whatever they want to see changed in their life. So, if we really humanize it both from a marketing business perspective as well as a therapeutic perspective. It’s that human piece that our clients want and that’s what they’re going to pay for in private practices. It’s not the approach that we use. It’s not whether you’re the best therapist doing DBT, CBT, whatever it is. It’s they want to create that relationship, that connection with you, as the therapist.

Chris: Yeah, and that’s exactly it. And I’ve seen exactly what you’re talking about on different profiles. People say I’m trained in this, I’m trained in level six of this and all these acronyms that only therapists know. And I can only imagine for a client reading that profile. First thing is, “I don’t know what any of these acronyms mean. This is just gibberish to me.” Is this therapist a nice person? I can’t tell from this. You want to know if your therapist is a good person or a nice person or a person you’d be able to get along with. So, a smile in your profile photo, use welcoming, warm colors. Of course, talk about your qualifications, because you got to put that out there. But don’t make that the whole thing. Talk about what makes you different as a person. I would say probably 90% of clients don’t necessarily even think about therapeutic style. So, you got to sell yourself as a person more so than I think you need to sell yourself as a skill.

Differences Between 1-to-1 and Group Supervision Models

Kayla: A hundred percent, agree. So, I know that you provide group supervision in your business. What does group supervision look like and how does it differ from say, a one-to-one supervision model?

Chris: So, we have three, kind of, different options in supervision. There’s individual or one-on-one supervision. There’s dyadic supervision, so that’s a clinical supervisor and two supervisees. And then there’s group clinical supervision. So, in Ontario, the biggest a group can be is eight supervisees and in one clinical supervisor. So, in the individual or dyadic, it’s a lot more focused on their specific client load. It’s really digging deep into specific files. Typically, each supervisee will bring one really difficult or challenging case, to the session. They’ll present the case conceptualization, me and the other supervisee will ask some questions. We’ll really try to get to understand the client. And then we’ll start looking at solutions, maybe not even solutions, but just throwing ideas out there. And that’s essentially what a lot of clinical supervision is. It’s essentially very structured brainstorming.

So, we talk about other approaches. What have you tried? Okay. Have you thought of this? Have you thought of that. So, the dyadic and the individual tends to be more kind of case-based, because typically the appointments are shorter in time. But for group supervision, for me personally, I like to do them over a space of two hours with a 5-to-10-minute break in the middle and the first hour I always have a little bit of an education piece, last night we talked about trauma. We’ve actually talked about imposter syndrome. We’ve talked about proper note keeping. Just some sort of general education piece that is really designed to be more of a discussion than education.

So, we go around the table first. Everybody gives their little update. Hopefully some good news may, sometimes there’s some bad news. We all say hello. We do a structured education, turns into really good group discussion. Then I typically have two or three discussion questions, they’re case-based scenarios. And then we all brainstorm what we would do and how we would do it. And I find there’s a lot of learning that happens on those case-based discussions.

And then in the group supervision, then we typically take a break about halfway through, come back after the break. And then we do case discussions. So, a supervisee will bring up a case, just like they did in dyad but they’re going to get a lot more perspectives. And that process can last for five minutes for a client, and I’ve seen it last for 45 minutes for a client. So, it really varies on the complexity of the situation. What has already been done. If there’s any kind of legal stuff involved that can always add some definite layers to the conversation. But yeah, the greatest thing about it is I never know what’s going to happen in supervision and neither does anyone else. So, it’s always a surprise to all of us, but we always end up learning.

Conclusion

Kayla: Amazing. So even though there’s a shortage of clinical supervisors, you are accepting new therapists in your clinical supervision practice right now. Am I right in saying that?

Chris: That is correct for the group supervision? Yes. We are unfortunately not able to take any individual or dyadic supervisees at this time. But we are still accepting applicants for our group supervision spots.

Kayla: Perfect. So, can you tell us a little bit about your services and what that looks like, if someone wanted to reach out to you?

Chris: So, when someone reaches out to me, it’s typically via email, I get back to them within 24- hours. I try to keep on top of my emails as much as possible. We organize a Zoom meeting. We get to know each other. We talk about therapeutic approaches. We just get to know each other; just like in any kind of intake you would do with a client.

If we both agree that it could be a good fit. I have a pretty standard contract. I email over. There’s a few things that has to be covered by our regulatory college in Ontario, here. But it’s a pretty basic contract. The client signs that, sends it back, and then they’re scheduled into a group. And depending on when that group is happening. I’ve had people go from first email to me to starting in their first group within a week, which is the ideal. But it doesn’t always happen that quickly, but we have been able to really move this process along.

Kayla: Perfect. So how can someone reach out to you if they wanted to connect?

Chris: Yeah. So, if someone wants to connect, I’d urge them to go to our website, ontariosupervision.ca. And if they want to reach out to me directly via email, that’s admin@ontariosupervision.ca.

Kayla: So, if you’d like to reach out to Chris, head to ontariosupervision.ca, or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.

Chris, thank you so much for taking the time today to join us. It was great to have you here and share all of your wisdom with us.

Chris: It was my absolute pleasure, Kayla. Thank you so much for having me.

Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning into today’s episode, and I hope you join me again soon on The Designer Practice Podcast.

Until next time, bye for now.

Credits & Disclaimers

Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay

The Designer Practice Podcast and Evaspare Inc. has an affiliate and/or sponsorship relationship for advertisements in our podcast episodes. We receive commission or monetary compensation, at no extra cost to you, when you use our promotional codes and/or check out advertisement links.