Post-Licensure Supervision

In addition to supervising registered Counselor Associates for licensure, I also provide ongoing clinical supervision for licensed mental health professionals. Although we may think of clinical supervision as a hurdle that mental health counselors must navigate on their way toward licensure and independent practice, post-licensure supervision has many benefits for both the mental health professionals who utilize it, and for the clients or patients that they work with.

Ongoing clinical supervision is a powerful tool for professional efficacy, growth and self-care, including:

• Increasing your technical skills
• Practicing new theoretical approaches
• Expanding your scope of practice – safely and ethically
• Deepening your application of theory to practice
• Maintaining work-life balance
• Alleviating professional burn-out and compassion fatigue
• Addressing blind spots
• Preventing ethical missteps
• Grounding your work in professional connection and community

Overall, ongoing clinical supervision can help you become more competent and confident in your work, which will make your practice far more enjoyable in the short-term, and far more sustainable in the long-term.

Post-licensure supervision is especially helpful for mental health professionals who work with trauma, since repeated exposure to patients’ traumatic experience can lead to vicarious traumatization – also known as secondary victimization or secondary traumatic stress – which reduces our clinical effectiveness and can have detrimental effects in our personal lives as well. Vicarious traumatization tends to be a cumulative and manifests gradually over time with repeated exposure to others’ suffering, and is not always obvious. A trusted, experienced clinical supervisor can help you identify, prevent, or alleviate various trauma before it negatively impacts your work or your mental, emotional and physical health.

Supervision after licensure doesn’t necessarily look like the supervision you received while you were working toward your license. The process is usually less structured – for example, we may meet once a month, or on an as-needed basis. We don’t need to track contact hours or submit progress reports to the licensing board. The post-licensure supervisory relationship is less hierarchical and more egalitarian, and targeted toward supporting your ongoing professional growth and troubleshooting specific challenges or vulnerabilities in your practice.