Clinical Social Work Supervision

01/04/2023

Happy 2023. In June, I will have been doing supervision for 10 years. Over those 10 years, I’ve been privileged to supervise 40+ LGSW social workers in health care, child protection, foster care and adoption, group homes, private practice, and schools. In most cases, the people I’ve worked with were well prepared for ethical social work practice and doing good social work, often under poor, even hostile, conditions.

It’s the “poor, even hostile, conditions” that I’m pondering at the moment. Supervision, particularly group supervision, can be a great vehicle for reality testing as supervisees learn to trust their own perceptions of what is happening on the job, while understanding their reactions to it: what part is attributable to the environment, and what part is attributable to personality, e.g. desire to please/not antagonize, etc.

11/03/2021

I’ve been listening to “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson. And can’t help but reflect on what is unfolding in the Virginia’s Governor’s race. There are any number of problems with Democratic leadership in Washington DC at the moment that could be factors in the shift in white suburban voters back to the Republican Party, so why bring up CRT? As I understand it, according to Wilkerson, Caste is the ultimate race card. Any issue that reliably activates fears of Caste erosion will be a reliable vote getter for Republicans. Whites will vote to maintain their dominant position in Caste hierarchy even when they profess to be anti-racist. Younkin is the reassuring face of dominant Caste politics. If he succeeds, Republicans have their winning strategy: They can find Trump candidates without the crass bits.

06/11/2020

I have openings for LGSWs looking for a clinical supervisor: 1:1 and group. We meet via Google Duo or Zoom. Sliding scale offered.

11/02/2019

I took a survey this morning from the MN Dept of Health. It asks mental health providers to gauge the impact of climate change on the people they serve. It asked me to rate myself on how helpful I think I am in addressing the effects of climate change on the folks I cross paths with. Then it asked me to name the barriers I face in helping these folks address climate change in their own lives. WOW! Have I been living under a rock for 5 years? Can it really be that there's been a massive public health campaign to educate us professional helpers and I haven't been paying attention? Doubtful. And it's not that I haven't been looking for information: I read, and listen to a lot of podcasts and have learned about the correlations between climate change, health and mental health. Honestly though, I get more useful information from my spiritual community than from the Health Department. If the Minnesota Health Department wants to be seen as empowering everyone to fight the climate crisis, they're going to have to stop whispering and start using a fog horn.

04/04/2019

Since January, several in my family (including me) have been planning to ride bicycles together in the annual 5 Borough Bike Event in New York City this May. As it is now April and the snow is finally not a problem, I am faced with the challenge of motivating myself to get on my bike regularly and "train."

I face this problem every spring, whether I'm training for something or not: I miss my bike all winter, but once I can ride, I come up with almost endless excuses to avoid doing it.

Remembering Prochaska's Stages of Change, I see the challenge of leaving relapse as the reluctance to pick up the habits and mental attitudes that jump-started and kept me going the previous year. I know what they are; it's just easier not to do them. I'm not saying that my pattern is as bad as an addiction: I wouldn't know. I am saying that it's my pattern.

11/19/2017

11/19/2017

Last Friday, 11/17, I presented "Brief Counseling skills for busy primary care providers" (twice) in front of approximately 60 health care providers at Primary Care Update, a yearly medical conference sponsored by Park Nicollet Health Services.

I used case studies of actual patients to discuss and practice deep breathing and mindfulness exercises to reduce anxiety during office visits; and did the same with Motivational Interviewing, providing single scripted questions to assess patient readiness to change unhealthy habits.

The presentation was well received. (Must remember to wear cushier shoes next time I have to stand for 90 minutes!)

10/20/2017

I used to think if Americans could learn to talk to each other about a hard subject like death, it would solve the problem of making hard decisions at critical moments during a family member's illness because they'd know what their family member wanted. I expected that doing what the very sick/dying person wanted would be what everyone wanted. In some families, that seems to be true. In many more cases, fear of death is so strong that people lose their courage and change their minds.

Unfortunately, people in my profession aren't good at addressing this kind of fear and we fall back on the excuse of "patient autonomy" for supporting patient and family choices that will prolong suffering or cause harm. I attended The Art of Dying, a "palliative care" conference in New York last weekend where this and the whole issue of our death-phobic culture were addressed with creativity and scientific research and spiritual language mingled effortlessly. Many wonderful ideas.

09/08/2017

I just signed a contract with Hennepin County Child Protection to supervise Professional Counselors wanting to become clinically licensed. I offer 1:1 and group supervision.

08/12/2017

Eco-maps: They help us visualize how families are connected (and disconnected) to their communities...I tried a couple of online tools and went back to pens and paper for the flexibility.😕

08/12/2017