Episode 4: Supervision – A Different Kind of Relationship

October 9, 2017

simplepractice audio series podcast with allison puryear lcsw

SimplePractice Community Leader Allison Puryear, LCSW explores five ways to overcome loneliness in our first ever Audio Series. Her advice will not only make you a stronger practitioner, but will also help build your business and increase your client load! Take a few minutes out of your day to listen to Episode 4, and let us know what you think in the comments section!

Hey, everybody. This is Allison Puryear from Abundance Practice Building, and now we’re going to talk about supervision as a way to fight loneliness and build your practice. So with supervision, obviously it’s a different kind of relationship. You’ve got to be more careful about boundaries. I want you to be able to flex your supervisor muscles in a way that is healthy for you and your supervisee. If we’re getting really lonely, it’s gonna be tempting to be a little needy with our supervisees, ’cause it’s somebody who we’re not necessarily gonna be solving, or we will be solving some kind of their clinical problems that they’re running up against.

text about using your supervisor role in a healthy way

But remember that your supervisor is not necessarily your peer, okay? So with that being said, having this different kind of relationship can allow you to fill that mentoring role. It can allow you to really help somebody build their clinical skills in a beautiful way in this just great mentorship.

I know when I’m supervising people, it helps me think about what I’m doing in my own clinical work in a new and different way. I’m thinking about being an example and modeling these things for people, even though they’re not watching me do my work.

So, supervision can be great. It is also an alternative income source, which is fantastic. But, to that end, it may also require a different way of marketing then you’re already doing with your current private practice. Now I’m gonna recommend, even if your state doesn’t require it, that you get solid supervision training.

I think most states require it at this point, but just in case yours doesn’t, I’d love for you to get actual training in how to supervise, because those dynamics are different, and ’cause we want to do it well, right?

text about strengthening private practitioners abilities

So one way that this builds your business is if your supervisee is, for instance, in an agency or another group practice or something like that. If your specialty comes up and they’re not yet ready to be working with that clientele, and nobody around them is working with that clientele, then you’ve got a nice natural referral source. You’re also helping make somebody a better clinician, and so as they go out into the world, and if they go into private practice, they’re gonna remember you for that. You’re giving them great examples of how you work as you’re working with them. You’re helping them gain competence. So if you’re doing a great job and it’s a great fit with the supervisee, then you’ve got a great opportunity and maybe a lifelong referral partner that you refer back and forth with.

So that’s one way that it helps build your practice. And then obviously, just being able to geek out on some of the clinical stuff with someone. It’s just nice for the loneliness piece, because you’re not gonna geek out in the same way with your clients as you will with a supervisee. So that’s a quick run around supervision, partly because I want you to make sure you go out and get training. And when it comes to marketing supervision, think about local grad schools and forming some alliances there, maybe doing a guest lecture or something like that to help build some relationships with the students.

You might also be looking into local community health. They may or may not have supervisors there, depending on the area, really, so that might also be a great place to find some supervisees who are super excited to work with you.

All right. I hope that was helpful. Next, we’re gonna talk about attending local CEU events as a way of fighting back the loneliness and building your business, not just learning. Again, this is Allison Puryear from Abundance Practice-Building. I’ll see you soon.