Congratulations! You’ve gotten your clinical Master’s Degree in a counseling or social work field, and you’re wanting to focus on mental health treatment in Colorado. Now that you are released out into the world, you’re looking for the same type of support and supervision that you got while in graduate school, but it doesn’t seem readily available in your current job or the jobs you’re looking for. Perhaps you have a clinical supervisor, but he/she seems more focused on the administrative part of your job and you’re feeling like you’re on your own island regarding your clinical caseload or clinical duties. Or maybe you’re looking to go into private practice and you really want the support, experience and clinical supervision from a trained clinical supervisor.
What are your options? You can continue to struggle through your days, unsure of what are supposed to do as a new mental health professional in your job. Or you can seek out clinical supervision from a trained and experienced clinical supervisor. There are many benefits of getting clinical supervision as a new clinician in the field. I believe that there are many benefits of constantly getting your own clinical supervision, even as you progress from a beginning level clinician to intermediate, to advanced. Here are 3 benefits of working with a clinical supervisor as a new mental health professional.
Professional Growth
In the mental health field, experience matters. As a new clinician you don’t have the same professional experience as a seasoned therapist or social worker who has been in the field for 20+ years. But you can get there by focusing on your own professional growth. Professional growth is an ongoing goal to strive towards, and is more of a process than an end result. By getting regular supervision for your clinical caseload/duties and support for yourself as a new clinician in the field, you are constantly learning new interventions for your clients and flexible thinking regarding big-picture systems and client treatment options. The ability to continue to learn and grow in our field is what moves you from a beginning, to intermediate, to advanced counselor.
Increased Self-Awareness
As mental health professionals, the main instrument we use for our jobs are ourselves. We need to keep ourselves in top working order, then, in order to perform our job at the level that is expected. One way of doing this is by increasing your own self-awareness of yourself as a professional and a person. Clinical supervision can help you to identify any transference or counter-transference that you are having with clients and work through this effectively. It can also help you understand if you are getting close to burn-out and when you need to focus on your own self-care. Supervision can help you identify when you need to do your own work, or seek your own counseling, to work through an issue that is affecting your work as a therapist. Increased self-awareness is key to longevity in the mental health field, and clinical supervision will help you focus on this.
Improved Client Care
The end result of getting clinical supervision is to help you improve your client care. You clients are coming to you to manage their symptoms, resolve issues in their lives, get support during challenging times, or treat a particular disorder. They deserve you being on top of your game with the care and treatment you provide to them. Clinical supervision will help you explore different theoretical perspectives to use with different presenting problems, and will guide you through the use of appropriate interventions tailored to meeting the client where he or she is at. Clinical supervision helps you improve your client care so that you can become better at your job.
How to Find a Clinical Supervisor in Colorado
Hopefully by now you are considering the benefits of obtaining clinical supervision as a new mental health professional in Colorado. Maybe your current job provides excellent clinical supervision, in which case that is great and you should be all set. But more often, your clinical supervision is lacking in some area and you may need to go outside of your job or agency to find your own clinical supervisor. Check out the clinical supervision options and supervisors that Catalyss Counseling provides if you are interested in pursuing independent clinical supervision in Colorado. You can become the fantastic social worker, therapist, or counselor that you want to be!
Other Therapy Services Available at Catalyss Counseling:
Here at Catalyss Counseling, we want to meet all of your counseling needs in the Denver area. Our supportive therapists provide depression counseling, therapy for caregiver stress, grief and loss therapy, stress management counseling and more. We also have specialists in trauma and PTSD, women's issues, pregnancy and postpartum depression or anxiety, pregnancy loss and miscarriage, and birth trauma. For therapists, we can also provide clinical supervision! We look forward to connecting with you to help support your journey today.
Author Biography
Shannon Heers is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, guest blogger, and owner of Catalyss Counseling in Englewood, CO. Shannon helps adults in professional careers manage anxiety, depression, work-life balance, and grief and loss. Follow Catalyss Counseling on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
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