SOLUTION-ORIENTED SUPERVISION

Unlike most models of supervision which are hierarchical in nature and where the main emphasis is on addressing problems with clients, treatment impasses, and learning gaps with the supervisee, the solution-oriented supervision approach is much more interested in what supervisees are doing right with their clients, how to increase what works, and even with more challenging clients, tapping their natural strengths, resources, and talents to get unstuck. With this collaborative supervision approach, supervisees take the lead in determining their short-term client session and long-term learning goals respectively. By doing so, this fosters a cooperative partnership and co-creates a supervisory climate ripe for supervisee skill development and professional growth.

The solution-oriented supervision model is most ideal for social workers and student interns practicing in settings where there is limited time to be able to see clients long-term and/or an administrative mandate for providing brief treatment and seeing increasingly higher volumes of clients. Since supervisees may be encouraged to learn how to work therapeutically in a more time-sensitive and efficient way with their clients, the solution-oriented supervision model will provide them with a context for learning and mastering brief therapy skills.

In this “hands-on” practice-oriented workshop, participants will learn the following:

• Key solution-oriented supervision assumptions
• Use solution-oriented supervisory questions designed to empower supervisees and the treatment system
• Major supervisory interventions
• Practical guidelines for how to manage clinical dilemmas and challenging client situations
• Creative uses of consultation teams with colleagues
• Adapting the solution-oriented supervision framework to the management level and for organizational change in social service and mental health settings.

The workshop format will combine information-rich didactic presentation and skill-building exercises.