Trauma-Informed Clinical Supervision: Core Principles and Key Skills

Course overview

Despite widespread use of the term trauma-informed (TI) and the fact that many clients seeking or required to seek clinical services have histories of trauma, misconceptions abound regarding what it means to adopt a TI lens in clinical practice. Even less attention has been devoted to understanding the implications of the TI formulation for clinical supervision. In this tow-hour workshop, the application of the TI formulation to clinical supervision is explained and core skills of TI supervision are summarized. It does, however, have two distinguishing features. First, trauma-informed supervisors understand the core principles of the TI perspective and their implication for clinical practice and supervision. Clinicians cannot adopt a trauma-informed lens in their practice if they do not have supervisors who understand the perspective. Consistent with the notion of parallel process, supervisors also understand how promoting TI principles in supervision models for clinicians the very skills that promote these principles in their practice. Second, supervisors understand the nature of indirect trauma as well as what their role is in assisting supervisees in managing its manifestations. Clinicians inevitably will be impacted by their work with survivors of trauma regardless of whether their work is trauma-focused or centered on clients' current problems in living that reflect clients' experiences with trauma.