Clinical Supervision

I’ve experienced first hand how difficult it is to work with some of the most complex, vulnerable and treatment resistant clients we have the privilege of assisting.

I find that most clinicians have a strong knowledge of evidence-based clinical skills; but experience difficulty in knowing what to do when these interventions are not getting the results they or their clients are seeking. In other words, their difficulties lie more in the process rather than the content of therapy. That is, what skill to apply at which particular moment in therapy and with which particular client to achieve optimum results.

I have completed a three year core training and a further four years of advanced training program in a form of psychodynamic therapy called Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). My training has primarily been with Dr Steve Arthey (QLD) but I have also been supervised by Professor Allan Abbass, Jon Frederickson and Patricia Coughlin.

ISTDP attempts to get to the root cause of a client’s difficulties, assist them to regulate their emotions in more adaptive ways and to understand and then turn against unhealthy defensive processes (which, left unaddressed lead to premature drop out and/or reduced therapeutic outcome).

I believe many of the principles in ISTDP are transtheoretical (i.e., they can be modified or adapted to fit any therapeutic intervention). Indeed I have supervised therapists practising from different treatment approaches (e.g., CBT, ACT, mindfulness, DBT) who have applied these principles while still practising their preferred modality and improved their outcomes.

Further, I am highly familiar with the literature on feedback informed treatment and deliberate practice and these concepts also shape how I deliver supervision.

I have supervised a variety of mental health professionals (e.g, psychiatric registrars, clinical nurses, social workers, psychologists including provisional and registered) in individual and group format. Further, I am an endorsed clinical supervisor for provisional psychologists in the 4+2, 5+1, research higher degree and clinical registrar programs. I adopt a warm, collegial supervisory style that encourages self-reflective practice and adoption of deliberate and reflective practice.