[Lrad123]

Do all T’s have supervision or is that just something they do at the beginning of their career? My T is in his 60’s and we had a roundabout conversation about this briefly where I think he said he doesn’t have supervision. I was surprised by that. My marriage counselor is also in her 60’s and she states on her webpage that she meets with a supervisor (although I can remember if that’s what she called it) twice/month.

[velcro003]

I don’t think it is required, so probably not. My T, who is in her early 40s sees one and goes to her own therapy.

[Lrad123]

Mine is psychodynamic and was in his own therapy 5 days/week for 5 years at some point. I just thought it would make sense to bounce ideas off of someone else.

[Lonelyinmyheart]

In the UK its a requirement for all therapists at any stage to have a supervisor. Sadly it's not the case in US.

[stopdog]

They do not all have supervision in the united states. But to be honest - I really don't think supervision is all that helpful to the client even if the therapist has it. It gives the therapist more of a legal leg to defend themselves in some cases, but it does not assure the client of any real level of safety in therapy.

[nottrustin]

T was on her 60s and did not have supervision.

Emdr T doesParticipate in a supervision group. Since she believes in being completely transparent, the couple of times she has asked for advice on my case she told me what she asked for guidance on and what the others told her.

[LonesomeTonight]

Nope! My T doesn’t have it. He meets with a consulting group like 6 times a year. Definitely wish he had supervision at times...

[SlumberKitty]

I don't know about current T, I know Pastor T doesn't have Supervision. Former T didn't have supervision either. She supervised others who were in training. And the other two T's I saw I don't know about.

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by LonesomeTonight

Nope! My T doesn’t have it. He meets with a consulting group like 6 times a year. Definitely wish he had supervision at times...

What’s the difference between meeting with a consulting group and supervision? Aren’t they sort of the same thing?

[Salmon77]

Mine has a consulting group, too. I think supervisors have a higher level of expertise and gets paid, while everyone is at the same level in a consulting group.

[ArtleyWilkins]

1st and 3rd were supervisors themselves. They both had other therapists and/or pdocs they consulted with regularly and I was aware that they did so. They let me know if they had discussed my case with those individuals in a consultatory fashion: what was discussed and any insights/recommendations. It wasn't something that happened a great deal.

2nd was supervised regularly as he was earlier on in this career and that was part of his ongoing training.

Honestly, not sure it mattered either way. I had no problem with them consulting someone if they needed to. I had also given them access to my pdocs (which was who they consulted more often and that WAS helpful and necessary). Again, they always let me know when they were doing so, and more often than not, those phone discussions happened while I was in the room and the phones were on speaker so all three of us could talk.

My feeling is that most experienced therapists aren't directly under supervision, but rather, they do have fellow therapists they have access to for consultation when they feel it necessary. They should let you know this (mine always did).

[Lrad123]

Either way, getting supervision or being part of a consulting group sure seems like a good idea. Otherwise it seems isolating. Seems like a good idea all around to share and discuss with colleagues.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

What’s the difference between meeting with a consulting group and supervision? Aren’t they sort of the same thing?

Consulting group is more where they can seek advice form each other about their cases. Like another group member could be seeking advice from Dr. T, for example. I know he once asked them about me with the stone thing. Whereas supervision is just one direction, one T who supervises another. So, if Dr. T had a supervisor, the supervisor would advise Dr. T, but not the other way around.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

Either way, getting supervision or being part of a consulting group sure seems like a good idea. Otherwise it seems isolating. Seems like a good idea all around to share and discuss with colleagues.

Yeah, the one consulting T I saw a few times, K, said she and her coworkers (there are 3 of them in the practice, I think) often will discuss cases at the end of the day or over lunch. She was rather horrified that Dr. T's consulting group only met 6 times a year (and he's in solo practice, though there are other T's in his office suite).


In Ex-T and ex-MC's practice, they had a half-hour weekly clinical meeting, where part of it was for them to ask advice on clients. I think that frequency, or maybe biweekly, would be better.

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by LonesomeTonight

Yeah, the one consulting T I saw a few times, K, said she and her coworkers (there are 3 of them in the practice, I think) often will discuss cases at the end of the day or over lunch. She was rather horrified that Dr. T's consulting group only met 6 times a year (and he's in solo practice, though there are other T's in his office suite).


In Ex-T and ex-MC's practice, they had a half-hour weekly clinical meeting, where part of it was for them to ask advice on clients. I think that frequency, or maybe biweekly, would be better.

Yes, consulting groups seem like a really good idea to me in this profession. The one time I asked my T about this (supervision vs consulting) I felt like he thought I might be questioning him. He’s not very defensive at all, so it might have just been my interpretation.

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by ArtleyWilkins

My feeling is that most experienced therapists aren't directly under supervision, but rather, they do have fellow therapists they have access to for consultation when they feel it necessary. They should let you know this (mine always did).

I happen to know that my therapist’s wife is also a therapist and that she does supervision. Obviously she doesn’t supervise her husband, but I wonder how often they discuss clients.

[Lemoncake]

I'm not sure about all T's but R does and I think I can tell when he's seen him.He seems different.

The woman T i saw last year told me she had 3 and their names. She had a private practice but also

Possible trigger:

worked for a charity for rape victims and trauma.

It is only recently that i learned in my country supervision can be a casual chat in the corridor about a client

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

I happen to know that my therapist’s wife is also a therapist and that she does supervision. Obviously she doesn’t supervise her husband, but I wonder how often they discuss clients.

I always wondered this about ex-T, as her H was a retired T who used to work with her (before I started seeing her). When she said she consulted a few people about whether I should talk to ex-MC (and how) about the transference, I wondered if he was someone she'd consulted.

[Lrad123]

Do you think it would seem contentious if I asked my T why he doesn’t do consultation?

[ElectricManatee]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

Do you think it would seem contentious if I asked my T why he doesn’t do consultation?

It would probably depend on the context and your tone. It seems like a reasonable question to ask if you want to know, but he may not give you a satisfactory answer. Therapists are wily like that.

I asked my T once whether she had consulted with somebody else on a particular issue because she was making (what I felt was) a huge mistake that seemed out of character for her. She said she didn't feel that she had to answer my question, but to be fair, I was pretty angry at the time and either a yes or a no probably would have only made me angrier.

[Rive1976]

In the U.S. you go to school to be a therapist then you are supervised for a certain amount of hours Once you get licensed you don't. You do have to do continuing education I think.

Mine does. Good therapists in my area tend to have supervision, even if they themselves supervise other therapists.

[malika138]

My T is in her 60's and I doubt she asks anyone for assistance. Probably thinks she is too good for that. I did have a session with her with the laptop running in the background, muted, so she could get continuing education credits by "attending" a webinar. Of course, I'm struggling with her right now so I could be too negative about this.