SOLUTION

FOCUSED
SUPERVISION
ENCOURAGING AND PROMOTING
CHANGE

Who am I and why am I talking to you

about supervision?
Teaching and training in eld of family therapy for over 25 years
Book chapters and arPcles on resource oriented, encouraging supervision
(most recently in Todd and Storms 2nd ediPon Systemic Supervisor); most
recent book (2013) on all models of family therapy; and now complePng
book on opPons for graduates in the mental health eld
Have made my share of mistakes and
had my share of terrible supervision
experiences on both sides!

Dening our terms (as they are

tradiPonally used)
Supervision someone in a posiPon of greater authority
works with someone in a posiPon of lesser authority to
improve (and evaluate) that persons performance
Supervisor the person in the posiPon of greater authority
Supervisee the person receiving the supervision/in a
posiPon of less authority
Who gets supervision? Beginning
therapists, teachers, school counselors,
beginning health care professionals,
and others
but also supervisors themselves.

HOW IS SUPERVISION USUALLY

DEFINED?
SUPER plus VISION eyes on what the
supervisee is doing someone looking over
your shoulder, keeping an eye on you, etc.
Monitoring and criPquing and reporPng
Maintaining professional standards
Ge`ng our
Ducks in a row

But what if we dened supervision

dierently?
Not looking over your shoulder but looking
together with you
CollaboraPve, towards a common goal
Encouraging and posiPve
A helping relaPonship

Why are we changing this?

WHY? Ader all, my supervisee reports to me I could re (or
fail) the supervisee why should I work collaboraPvely with
the supervisee?

WELL, lets look at how the tradiPonal Keeping an eye on
you supervision works in pracPce

So how is that
working?
Who here has experienced de-skilling?
The more the supervisor makes suggesPons/
recommendaPons/correcPons, the less the supervisee
seems to know how to do
Within a short period of Pme, the supervisee starts to feel
and act completely incompetent (as the supervisor grows
more and more frustrated)
It is as if the supervisor is accidentally taking skills away
instead of building them
The supervisee gets anxious, freezes, panics, forgets how
to do what he or she originally knew how to do
And the more the supervisor helps, the worse it gets

And also: Have you ever had a supervisee

who asked you about every lijle thing?
What do I do now?
Well I didnt want to make a mistake
Frustrated supervisor feels he or she is doing two
jobs the supervisor job AND
the supervisees job

And who here has experienced

passive resistance?
The supervisor makes a recommendaPon
The supervisee does not acPvely disagree, but
manages to make that recommendaPon not work
Well I tried that and it didnt work
FrustraPon on both sides
The supervisor suspects the supervisee is
sabotaging but cant prove this; the supervisee
just thinks the supervisor is unreasonable

Turns out it is not so simple

A telling B what to do sounds easy, but in
reality it is fraught with potenPal for B to get
less competent, to become too dependent on
supervision, or to indirectly resist
Do you just give up on supervising? No, then
you are not helping your supervisees advance,
improve, and grow
So what might be another approach?

SoluPon Focused Supervision

Contract with each supervisee for supervisees
individual goal(s)
Tie those goals in with the larger systems goals as
needed
Establish a mutual goal
Point out steps towards the goal that are already
taking place point out the posiPves
Encourage posiPve steps towards the goal
Work on doing more of what works idenPfy posiPve
excepPons (Pmes the supervisee is already doing well)

Where is this coming from?

SoluPon Focused Brief Therapy Steve de Shazer and Insoo
Kim Berg
SoluPon Oriented Bill OHanlon
SoluPon Focused Supervision Thorana Nelson, Joe
Wetchler, Frank Thomas
RelaPonal, collaboraPve supervision Bob Lee, Cheryl
Storm, Thomas Todd
Basic principles: goals; collaboraPon; and focus on
excepPons (when is it already working)
Complete bibliography at end
SoluPon Focused Brief Therapy is an evidence based form
of therapy (cerPed by the federal government), but also
applicable to supervision, training, and teaching.

So what does this look like in pracPce?

Example One:
I am a faculty supervisor who is also the head of a
project, working with at risk youth in a special
program. I need graduate interns commijed to
working in a posiPve, soluPon focused way with at risk
youth. I also need impeccable paperwork.
I get Susie. Susie (not her real name) is a graduate
intern who wants the clinical hours/experience I can
give her in my program. But she has no parPcular
interest in at risk youth. Her goal is to graduate as soon
as possible and do couples therapy in private pracPce.
She is also sloppy with her paperwork.

What are my next steps?

I could let Susie know she needs to do bejer
or I will re her. (Problems with this: I need
her and it takes Pme to recruit new
applicants; I dont know if there are bejer
applicants out there; she says she will comply
and is trying; but I dont see improvement).
OR

Supervision example, conPnued:

I could take the Pme to meet with Susie and discuss her
goals. I decide to do this.
She wants to get bejer at working with couples and
romanPc relaPonships. Okay, we have a good many
teenage girls referred because of acPng out due to
diculPes in their romanPc relaPonships. Would this be
interesPng to her? (Yes) Would she like to run a group on
healthy relaPonships? (Yes) Would this help her get hired
ader graduaPon? (Yes)
Well, that meets my needs, too, but only if her paperwork
is up to standards.
Now Susie wants to meet my needs, as I am meePng hers.
So how can Susie and I together help Susie improve?

And conPnued
Now that we have agreed upon a common goal, I start
looking for excepPons
Are there some of Susies reports which are bejer than
others? Even a lijle bit? What makes the dierence?
Are there other Pmes in Susies life she has successfully
improved her wriPng? When and how?
We establish Susie does bejer when she has a guide to
follow and someone to imitate
I assign her to a wriPng partner who can be her guide and
we reevaluate in a weeks Pme I also give her examples to
follow
In a weeks Pme she is much improved and we go on to the
next small step.

Let me anPcipate your objecPons

What if I dont have Pme to meet with each of
my supervisees to ascertain their goals and
work out a set of common goals? 30 minutes
now will save you 30 frustraPng hours later.
What if all my supervisee wants is to do the
minimum and just get by? Then gure out
what the minimum is but also dont assume
that. People expand upon their goals when
they feel like someone is listening.

Example Two
Lets talk about another supervisee.
She had a strong goal of learning to work with at
risk youth, which matched my goal, so that part
was easy.
She was conscienPous and hard working.
BUT she was so anxious she made her clients
anxious and she talked way too fast and too
much.
When I pointed this out, predictably, she got
more anxious andyou guessed it, my comments
only made things worse

Taking a soluPon focus with

techniques/skills

So I met with her and went back over our common goal
I praised her commitment and dedicaPon
I asked her: when was she less anxious? When was it easier for her to listen?
She let me know she is anxious in new situaPons unfamiliar situaPons when
she is too far away from her small town, Midwest roots
SO we arranged a series of eld trips. She experienced what it was like to ride
the bus in a large urban area, ajend a large urban middle school (I set her up to
volunteer there a day a week or so), wander through unfamiliar neighborhoods.
When she got comfortable with the middle school, I set her up to volunteer at a
homeless shelter.
Each step of the way, she reported on her experiences to me and I commended
her increasing comfort with dierent experiences.
She ended up relaxing with her clients and becoming one of our best interns.
Unusual? Yes, but it worked for her, and it was a plan we made together, based on
what has worked for her in the past overcoming anxiety through new
experiences and increasing comfort with dierence

But what if the shoe is on the other foot?

What if you are the supervisee and your supervisor

really is unreasonable and not collaboraPve?

Well, this agreeing on a goal works both ways

what are your supervisors goals?
Do you have any idea what kinds of pressure your
supervisor is under? (Your supervisor likely has a
supervisor as well)
What is a common goal you and your supervisor
could agree on, which benets both of you? How
could you make this happen?
What is the rst small step?
What is already working however small?

I tried that and it didnt work

Common reasons ajempts at soluPon focused supervision
dont come o at rst:

The supervisor did not truly take the Pme to arrive at a common
goal with the supervisee. The supervisee just agreed with
whatever the supervisor said, but doesnt really have an
investment in the process.
Once there is a common goal, the supervisor forgot and went
around looking for what was not working instead of looking
for and noPcing steps toward the goal, what IS working.
The supervisor is relying on empty praise, not actual
observaPon of whats working. To be encouraging, praise
should be specic and rooted in observaPon. I noPced how you
kept your cool when that student screamed at you and you
remembered the steps to take is good specic praise; Youre
doing ne this week is not.

So agreeing on a common goal is

criPcal
But not always easy

Goal se`ng techniques

(Developed by Anne Rambo for use in Systemic Change in Schools-
adapted for supervision)

ROPE (for Recall, Organize, Present and future, and

Expand)

Recall three Pmes you feel you were at your best when
you were really the professional you want to be
Organize those Pmes into a category or categories what
do those Pmes have in common? What skills were you
using?
Present and future: how could you do more of that, use
more of those skills you prefer?
Expand on this set up goals for the future and work with
your supervisor on them

From Bill OHanlon

Four key moPvaPons people have:

BLISSED: what is fascinaPng to this person? What does this

person love doing?
BLESSED: what mentors have encouraged this person?
How has this person found support for a parPcular type of
work?
TICKED: (well he uses a ruder word, but I changed it!)
What makes this person angry? How can that anger be
channeled into energy for example, anger against
injusPce which would make a person work hard to combat
discriminaPon?
DISSED: How has this person been discouraged by others?
Does this person have an investment in proving those
others wrong?

Fostering Diversity
Your supervisees life experiences are
dierent from yours
Your supervisees moPvaPons may be
dierent from yours
Take the Pme to listen and understand
Work towards a common goal
This greatly expands the resources available to
both you and your supervisee two realiPes
are more than twice as valuable as one

Good basic supervisor quesPons to

help set goals
Where do you see yourself in six months? In a
year? In ve years?
If you were to win an award in ve years for
excepPonal achievement, what kind of award
would it be?
What can we do now that would get you started
you towards that award?
What can I do now, as your supervisor, to make
sure you leave this meePng today encouraged
and ready to work towards the goal?

Now that you have the goal: Building

on what works
What is already happening that is a step
towards the goal? (even a small one)
How could you do more of that?
How could you expand on that?
How can we make sure to noPce Pmes when
these posiPve steps are happening?

And another idea to try

Note: se`ng up peer encouragement
buddies is a good tool to encourage
collaboraPon people will work hard for a
peers praise

In conclusion:
Heres to the crazy ones.
The mists. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things dierently.
Theyre not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you cant do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine.
They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song thats never been wrijen?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do

Rob Siltanen

SoluPon focused supervision can help

you nurture dierence and creaPvity
Not just square pegs and round holes
To start:
What moments of change do you remember
posiPvely from supervision? (whether you were
supervisor or supervisee)
What worked about those Pmes? What made the
experience posiPve?
How could you do more of that?

Supervision story from a graduate

Randy Heller (Dr. Heller, adjunct faculty with us)was my supervisor for
the FIVE YEARS it took for me to nally become licensed (I was changing
careers and couldn't give up my day job, so I could only get hours working
part Pme and they were dicult to come by). She was there to encourage
me when I had no clients and was ge`ng zero hours... and my morale was
in the toilet. I was very hard on myself (and because I wanted to be the
best therapist I could be, was hard on her, she said. Ha ha.). She always
encouraged me and never let me lose heart. I'm forever indebted to her
for her moral support, and for helping me transform from someone who
didn't think of himself as a therapist at all, to someone who not only
thinks of himself as a real, full Pme therapist, but a darn good one. I have
the program at Nova and Dr. Heller to thank for that. That's my story of
encouragement and I'm sPcking to it. from Mark Jacobsen LMFT
She always encouraged me and never let me lose heart. Words to
remember!

Bibliography

Huber, J. R. (2014). SoluPon-focused supervision: A resource-oriented approach to developing clinical experPse.

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 40(2), 264-266. Retrieved from
hjp://search.proquest.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/docview/1551133466?accounPd=6579
Lee, R. & Nelson, T. (2013). The Contemporary Rela:onal Supervisor New York: Routledge.
Rambo, A., West, C., Schooley, A., & Boyd, T. (2012). Family Therapy Review: Contras:ng Contemporary Models.
New York: Routledge.
nd

Todd, T. & Storm, S. (Eds.) (2014; 2 ediPon). The Complete Systemic Supervisor New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Thomas, F. (2013). Solu:on Focused Supervision: A resource oriented approach to developing clinical exper:se.
New York: Springer.

And in 2016, look for: Rambo, A., Boyd, T. & Marquez, M. Doing Well While Doing Good: Career Op:ons for Family
Therapists. New York: Routledge.

Thanks to Daphney Lundi M.S. who assisted with the literature review!