half day workshop

ENHANCING YOUR SUPERVISION SKILLS
Sue Spence, Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia

CCIB Room: 215/216

This workshop is designed for mental health professionals who are currently (or will be in the future) involved in clinical supervision. It is relevant to a broad range of clinical settings, and both adult and child clinical practice. Despite being recognized as an extremely important activity, very few supervisors receive training in clinical supervision skills. The workshop aims to develop skills and knowledge relating to the goals and benefits of supervision, ethical issues, establishing a strong supervisory relationship, supervision strategies, use of supervision contracts, managing challenging situations, and evaluating ones own supervisory practice. The workshop will provide a framework and resources for supervision that participants can take to implement in their own supervisory practice.

Professor Sue Spence, PhD (Clin Psych), MBA, BSc(Hons) is a Professor of Psychology and a Dean at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Over the past decade, she has been involved in research relating to mental health workforce development, with a particular focus on the role of supervision in professional development and as a way of enhancing the quality of clinical practice. In previous university positions she has been the head of clinical psychology training programs and has extensive experience both as a clinical supervisor and as a trainer of clinical supervisors.  She is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, the British Psychological Society and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. Prior to emigrating to Australia, she was an academic staff member in clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Her other current research and clinical practice relates to the assessment, prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression problems among children and adolescents.

Key References:
Spence, S. H., Wilson, J., Kavanagh, D., Strong, J., & Worrall, L. (2001). Clinical supervision in four mental health professions: A review of the evidence. Behaviour Change, 18(3), 135-155.
Strong, J., Kavanagh, D., Wilson, J., Spence, S. H., Worrall, L., & Crow, N. (2003). Supervision practice for allied health professionals within a large mental health service: Exploring the phenomenon. The Clinical Supervisor, 22(1), 191-210. 
Kavanagh, D. J., Spence, S. H., Strong, J., Wilson, J., Sturk, H., & Crow, N. (2003). Supervision practices in allied mental health: relationships of supervision characteristics to perceived impact and job satisfaction. Mental Health Services Research, 5(4), 187-195.