Not All Supervision is Created Equally

Not all supervision is created equally. Some supervision keeps you compliant, while other supervision keeps you competent, and some even keeps you human. There are three main types of supervision: administrative, clinical, and supportive.

Administrative Supervision

Administrative supervision focuses on policies, procedures, and performance, ensuring you meet agency standards and documentation expectations. This type of supervision helps you remain compliant with your regulatory body and your professional obligations. Administrative supervision is highly agency-focused and emphasizes ethical practice, mandates, and the professional-client relationship. According to our scoping review of supervision practices across six regulatory bodies in Canada, administrative supervision is consistently recommended as essential, primarily for compliance purposes, but rarely addresses the emotional or reflective needs of the clinician.

Clinical Supervision

Clinical supervision, on the other hand, supports skill development, ethical decision-making, and case conceptualization. It is the backbone of therapeutic practice. My scoping review found that clinical supervision is the most sought-after form of supervision among psychotherapists, social workers, and other healthcare providers. While clinical supervision is sometimes mandated for early career practitioners, most regulatory bodies merely suggest practice it as ongoing professional practice. It focuses on enhancing competence and ensuring practitioners can provide safe, ethical, and effective care. But what happens after you've been in practice for a long time? Do you still need supervision?

Supportive Supervision

Supportive supervision is about you: the clinician, the healthcare provider, the frontline worker. It acknowledges that providing care can be emotionally taxing and prioritizes clinician well-being, self-awareness, and resilience. Supportive supervision addresses what comes up for you in practice: your emotional reactions, boundaries, energy management, and sense of self. Research shows that when clinicians are supported, clients benefit through better therapeutic presence, containment, and relational capacity. Supportive supervision enhances healthcare providers ability to provide quality care, reduces stress, prevents burnout, and has a positive impact on job satisfaction.

However,  the scoping review revealed that supportive supervision is often overlooked. While administrative and clinical supervision dominate regulatory recommendations, supportive supervision rarely receives formal acknowledgment. Financial constraints and organizational priorities mean that many agencies are not providing it, leaving it “fallen between the cracks.”

Why Supportive Supervision Matters

As you grow in your practice, you encounter clients from diverse backgrounds, each revealing different aspects of your own subconscious patterns. Without supportive supervision, clinicians may struggle to navigate these internal dynamics. If you cannot feel safe in your own body, how can you hold a container of safety for someone else to heal? Supportive supervision allows clinicians to explore and manage the personal, emotional, and psychological aspects of their work—ensuring longevity, resilience, and the capacity to remain compassionate.

Taking Initiative

We have an obligation—and it’s our prerogative—to take initiative to maintain our own well-being so that we can effectively serve our clients. Administrative and clinical supervision may keep us compliant and competent, but supportive supervision keeps us human. In the face of cutbacks and systemic gaps, it is up to each practitioner to advocate for and seek out supervision that addresses the whole self, ensuring sustainable, ethical, and meaningful practice.

For more information about supervision please contact Angel directly  at angel@mainstreamtherapy.com, or book a session here.

Further Reading:

Implications for Social Work, Psychotherapy, and Regulatory Practice A scoping review.pdf

Download PDF • 748KB

by Angel Powers (2024) — exploring how different forms of supervision are addressed across Canadian regulatory frameworks.