Best Practices in Clinical Supervision: Another Step in Delineating Effective Supervision Practice

Across the helping professions, we have arrived at a point where it is possible to create statements of best practices in supervision that are based on available empirical research; credentialing, ethical, and legal guidelines; and consensus opinion. Best practices are different from, but certainly complementary to, statements of supervision competencies. In this paper, I highlight the differences between competencies and best practices, and then describe the development and content of one comprehensive statement, the Best Practices in Clinical Supervision created for the field of counseling and counselor education. I then illustrate the applicability of the Best Practices across disciplines and countries through a comparison and contrast with several other existing documents. I conclude with a brief look at the development of supervisor expertise, which requires not only declarative knowledge (competencies) and procedural knowledge (statements of best practices), but also reflective knowledge. The latter is composed of insights built over years of supervision education, experience, and self-reflection regarding necessary adaptions and improvisations that inform an individualized approach to supervision practice.