Suboptimal Supervision

[Psychadelic2012]

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This came up in another thread, but it seems appropriate to talk about independently: What are some examples of suboptimal or just downright horrible supervision that you've had (or that you've seen) as a trainee? You know we've all had them.

What are some of the most common things you've seen? What are the common deficits in supervisors these days? How do these issues affect the training we receive?

 

[RGirl]

This came up in another thread, but it seems appropriate to talk about independently: What are some examples of suboptimal or just downright horrible supervision that you've had (or that you've seen) as a trainee? You know we've all had them.

What are some of the most common things you've seen? What are the common deficits in supervisors these days? How do these issues affect the training we receive?

I had always been told it was good to be open about my supervisor about possibly relevant personal issues. I had started seeing a new supervisor for a therapy case. I thought I should be open with her about the fact that I had just split up with my live-in boyfriend, and was currently staying on a friend's couch. I told her that I didn't think it was affecting my clinical abilities at all, but I felt as though she should be aware of this.

It seemed she judged straight from the get go for being overly disclosive and used what I had said against me, especially as my other supervisors (clinical and supervisor) reported that my personal issues had not affected my work. For instance, if we disagreed about something, she would make it about my "stress", and when there was a technology problem that affected my video's audio, she acted as though it was my "stress load" affecting my attention to detail when it was actually a problem with the equipment that other people had.

I've never been one to over disclose in general, but after this, it took me a while to be open in supervision again, as I was so worried that anything would be taken as a sign of weakness.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I had always been told it was good to be open about my supervisor about possibly relevant personal issues. I had started seeing a new supervisor for a therapy case. I thought I should be open with her about the fact that I had just split up with my live-in boyfriend, and was currently staying on a friend's couch. I told her that I didn't think it was affecting my clinical abilities at all, but I felt as though she should be aware of this.

It seemed she judged straight from the get go for being overly disclosive and used what I had said against me, especially as my other supervisors (clinical and supervisor) reported that my personal issues had not affected my work. For instance, if we disagreed about something, she would make it about my "stress", and when there was a technology problem that affected my video's audio, she acted as though it was my "stress load" affecting my attention to detail when it was actually a problem with the equipment that other people had.

I've never been one to over disclose in general, but after this, it took me a while to be open in supervision again, as I was so worried that anything would be taken as a sign of weakness.

Maybe my CBTness is showing, but I've personally never seen anything good come of self-disclosure to advisors/supervisors. YMMV.

 

[Psychadelic2012]

Yeah, it's hard because some supervisors have boundary issues and they ask personal questions and self-disclose themselves...but once you do it, you definitely give them something to use against you. However, you also run the risk of appearing cold and impersonal if you don't self-disclose. It's definitely a dilemma!

 

[SingingCow]

Maybe my CBTness is showing, but I've personally never seen anything good come of self-disclosure to advisors/supervisors. YMMV.

I feel the most comfortable self-disclosing to my hardcore CBT supervisors. The more psychodynamic they are, the more risky it gets. My CBT supervisors have never "used" anything against me. If anything, they used examples in my life as "evidence" to help me not to catastrophize. 🙂

 

[aequitasveritas]

My story is that I had a supervisor who lived in a constant state of decompensation.

We averaged 20 minutes of actual clinical discussion as she was late, disorganized, frazzled, narcissistically invested in her own ventures, answering phone calls during our time, and basically just quasi-psychotic.

I was so happy I only got about 20 mins per session....err, I mean per supervision.

People commonly give advice such as "talk to your supervisor and tell her you're feeling such and such a way about the supervision"
....No. Most of the time, if I have to say "please don't eat your effen sandwich in my face while we do 'supervision'" then I am wasting my breath, because obviously I'm dealing with a mind that can't figure that out on it's own...so why would I want to discuss a client with it.

You can't instruct some supervisors/people to be different because their symptoms are part of a larger problem.

 

[Ollie123]

I've been fortunate in that I've never had anything tragic, though obviously some are better than others. Never had one I couldn't get along with personally. My only real issue has been with the ones who are "dynamic" (I use the term loosely, as I assume someone truly dynamic would at least know the dynamic literature). Mostly, therapy and supervision seemed to be about making crap up about how the world works, the "therapeutic relationship" and pulling interesting metaphors out of our arse based on some particular word a client used during a random 30 second video clip. It would have been fun as a party game, but made it very difficult for me to respect the person as a therapist. Though it did clearly illustrate to me why we have troubles getting respect from other fields.

Despite being clearly EBT-focused I sought it out to try and break out of the mold a bit and get some varied experiences, but I actually became increasingly resistant to it as time went on. I'd always assumed most psychologists were at least vaguely familiar with the scientific literature and perhaps referred to resources that weren't based on quantitative science but no...as far as I can tell it just involved making stuff up and these folks lacked even a vague understanding of the scientific process, let alone the literature. Blech. Definitely reaffirmed my desire to avoid such settings though!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

There was a good run of journal articles about supervision styles in the early 2000s. I can't think of the primary authors at the moment, but they ran a special edition in one of the journals about it. I have the articles somewhere (hardcopy). Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

This is a good article: http://66.199.228.237/boundary/punchmouth/deficient_supervision.pdf

As for disclosure, supervisors, etc....I think it is important to understand the difference between supervision, consultation, and therapy. Understanding the impact of counter-transference is important (and pretty much requires self disclosure), though that is a far cry from sharing personal details from your life. I guess the latter seems odd to me because I try to keep my professional life separate from my personal life.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

My story is that I had a supervisor who lived in a constant state of decompensation....

Talk with your DCT? That isn't safe or ethical to have him/her provide that kind of supervision. Were they good sandwiches at least?

 

[aequitasveritas]

Talk with your DCT? That isn't safe or ethical to have him/her provide that kind of supervision. Were they good sandwiches at least?

When my term was finished I pursued ethics violations as her behavior at the clinic affected her own clients in some pretty unethical and sometimes illegal ways. I chose to wait until the end for my own preservation; I just wanted the hours signed. I already had an outside supervisor in PP where I was receiving incredible analytic training. If she was all I had, I would have gone in for the kill during my term.

...The sandwiches were pretty fabulous though

 

[Psychadelic2012]

We averaged 20 minutes of actual clinical discussion as she was late, disorganized, frazzled, narcissistically invested in her own ventures, answering phone calls during our time, and basically just quasi-psychotic.

Most of the time, if I have to say "please don't eat your effen sandwich in my face while we do 'supervision'" then I am wasting my breath, because obviously I'm dealing with a mind that can't figure that out on it's own...so why would I want to discuss a client with it.

You mean it's not typical for a supervisor to use supervision time as their lunch hour, to finish up the tail end of some paperwork, or as their time to vent about their own life, clients, etc.??

I honestly don't think I even know what good supervision is. I hope that that will change, someday.

 

[aequitasveritas]

You mean it's not typical for a supervisor to use supervision time as their lunch hour, to finish up the tail end of some paperwork, or as their time to vent about their own life, clients, etc.??

I honestly don't think I even know what good supervision is. I hope that that will change, someday.

That's really unfortunate. If you join a postdoctoral specialized training venue you have a better chance for good supervision. I also think APA acred internships are designed to make training as proper as possible.

I also believe supervision, therapy, and thing like leadership etc, are nativist qualities, which someone either possesses the capacities for, or doesn't. This is why my resounding answer to the idea of discussing supervision with the supervisor is futile when the transgressions are symptomatic of who they are.

 

[Psychadelic2012]

This is why my resounding answer to the idea of discussing supervision with the supervisor is futile when the transgressions are symptomatic of who they are.

Yeah, it's hard to advocate for something that you can't be given. It's also very difficult when you are in practicum for school and communicating that your needs are not being met can be seen as a disrespectful act that can adversely affect one's grade or reputation (see other thread where the OP is frequently told to look at him/herself as the problem--therapists love to interpret situations as projection/transference/etc. and eventually it bounces back and forth, with responsibility ultimately pointing to whoever is lower on the food chain).