Clinical Supervision For When a Different Perspective is Needed
Helping others is harder than most people realize. It can be tough figuring out ways to best support clients if it triggers your own stuff in the process. You may at times also find yourself facing scenarios where you need to do a lot more research in order to best serve your clients.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. We all get there sometime- whether you’re a practicing professional or training to become a therapist. Because you have an important role to play in improving the mental health and well-being of others, I want to help you when you feel stuck.
For Professionals
I’m sad to say, but it’s true. Even superhero helpers need help. This can be for a variety of reasons.
Maybe you’re feeling burnout from compassion fatigue. Your caseload is heavy and you can’t hold onto all of the suffering anymore. Some of this suffering may be your own as you’re having a hard time managing the challenges of your own life with doing your best to help your clients.
Of course, you may simply need an outside perspective of what is happening for your clients within your therapeutic relationship. This may be because therapy seems to be at a standstill or because new dynamics are popping up. The idea of incorporating music into your work is interesting to you, and you may be wondering how to effectively incorporate music into your clinical work while staying within your scope of practice.
Otherwise, you may be starting out in private practice and having a hard time adjusting to being your own boss. You have ideas about your business that you’d like to talk about with someone who has been there, done that.
These are some of the reasons why I provide professional supervision to music therapists and other therapists.
For Students
With a desire to help cultivate the next generation of helping professionals, I also provide supervision to music therapy and counseling students in the Metro Denver area. However, I do not provide music therapy clinical practicums or internships at this time.
A Contemplative and Creative Arts Approach to Clinical Supervision
Approaching a difficult situation from a contemplative or creative mindset can yield insights that might otherwise be unknown if one relied solely on their “thinking mind.” That is because problems sometimes require that we take a step back from the situation so that we can see a bigger picture of what is happening. By taking a contemplative and creative arts approach to the supervision process and to the supervisory relationship, we will work together in helping you tap into your own wisdom and knowing. Coming to a place of greater understanding and clarity, you can move forward in a fulfilling, positive direction.
Things We Might Do in Supervision
Examples of how contemplative practices and the creative arts may be incorporated into the supervision session include:
- Mindfulness Meditation: Engaging in mindfulness meditation in sitting or walking forms can help us come into the present moment more directly. From a place of grounded awareness, we can approach the situation with greater curiosity, acceptance, and compassion.
- Improvising: Improvising can take the form of vocal improvisation or instrumental improvisation. The music you or we create serves as a form of communication. By using music to communicate and express, you can focus your mind, yet feel free to explore possibilities within the music.
- Music Listening and Lyric Analysis involves using pre-composed songs. Listening to a personally-significant song, whether it’s significant to you or your client, can provide you with insight into different perspectives about what could be going on. Songs can also be selected that represent your unique circumstances, whether your own personal life or from your client’s situation. From there we can then explore deeper meanings and representations. With lyric analysis, we listen to a song with lyrics and discuss the possible meanings and significance.
Contact me in order to find out more about the supervision services I provide.