As a certified Canadian Clinical Supervisor specializing in Addiction Counselling (CCS-AC), I provide in-office, virtual, or on-site clinical supervision for addiction counsellors, recovery coaches, and addiction peer support workers.  Supervision is available for individuals in private practice, working in a social services setting, or employed by a treatment program/agency.

Structured and Unstructured Supervision

Supervision generally fall into two main types: structured and unstructured.

• • • Structured supervision is supervisor-directed and resemble those of a training session.
    • Unstructured supervision can be either supervisor or supervisee directed and can be more difficult to implement as the supervisor has to facilitate learning without actually directing the session.

Both structured and unstructured supervision are beneficial to the supervisee at different points in their learning process.

3 Main Functions of Supervision

The three general functions of supervision include:

1. 1. 1. Assessing the learning needs of the supervisee
      2. Changing, shaping or supporting the supervisee’s behaviour
      3. Evaluating the performance of the supervisee

What are the 3 Main Areas of Focus?

Supervision revolves around three main areas, with ethics being the first priority in each of area:

1. 1. 1. Formative (i.e. growth-based): the supervisor shares their clinical experience to teach the supervisee.
      2. Normative (i.e. monitoring-based): The supervisor requests the supervisee to provide an explanation and rationale for their clinical or peer support decisions.
      3. Restorative (i.e. support-based): the supervisor offers support if the supervisee is struggling with an ethical issue or a clinical aspect of their practice or employment.