DIFFERENTIATING DIRECT
AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION: A SUMMARY
The following differentiating summary is
based on a review of, and an interpretive dialogue about the
Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiner rules: Title 4.
Professions and Occupations, Chapter 6, Board of Behavioral
Health Examiners as of October 2006. We make no claim to any
final legal opinion regarding our findings below. The
rules may be examined in detail by visiting the BBHE web site
at:
www.bbhe.state.az.us .
As we educate ourselves and our members
regarding supervision, questions continue to surface regarding
supervision both Clinical and Direct. It is apparent that there
is considerable confusion regarding the differences and the
parameters of each. The following is our best current attempt
to clarify the differences and scopes of these processes as they
affect supervisors, licensure candidates and behavioral health
entities.
1. Direct Supervision and Clinical
Supervision are different. They are differentiated below as
they occur in the post graduation, internship settings. Direct
supervision in the practicum setting is a pre-graduate process
and is not discussed below.
2. Direct supervision of a licensure
candidate with a Temporary or Associate license is provided by a
Licensed Behavioral Health Entity in the State of Arizona which
could be an agency or a private practice.
3. Direct Supervision is in essence an
employer employee relationship where the employee (licensure
candidate) may be terminated by the Behavioral Health Entity for
failure to perform based on the employer employee contractual
agreement for the internship. The Direct Supervisor represents
the Behavioral Health Entity and has complete control of
candidate’s case load including records and all other Entity
employee compliance protocols. The Direct Supervisor of an LMFT
candidate does not have to be an LMFT.
4. The licensure candidate cannot pay for
direct supervision or receive payment from clients. If the
licensure candidate is in a paying internship the payment must
come from the Behavioral Health Entity.
5. In an agency or private practice setting
a licensure candidate may work as an Independent Contractor, but
again may not receive payment from clients.
6. Clinical Supervision is in
essence educational training in best practices in the clinical
treatment process as it affects the client case load of the
licensure candidate. The Clinical Supervisor is responsible for
the clinical supervision of the entire candidate case load.
7. The clinical supervisor has been trained
in practices of supervision as prescribed by the BBHE and is a
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. An other licensed
behavioral health professional may do clinical supervision for
an LMFT candidate, but must have equivalent training to that of
an MFT as approved by the MFT Credentialing Committee.
8. The Clinical Supervisor may be a
licensed MFT or equivalent within a Behavioral Health Entity or
may contract to come into a Behavioral Health Entity from the
outside in order to provide clinical supervision to the licensee
candidate. Good contracting practices will be delineated on our
web pages going forward.
9. The Clinical Supervisor may be paid by
the licensure candidate, by the Behavioral Health Entity or
both.
Questions? Contact Alan Asher at
aalmft@cox.net .
