The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) is the largest counselor certification agency in the U.S. and is widely recognized as a national credential based upon training, experience, and performance on a written examination. NBCC has developed two examinations: the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and the National Career Counselor…

This digest focuses on legal and ethical issues in supervision. Ethics call the supervisor to a standard of practice sanctioned by the profession while legal statutes define a point beyond which a supervisor may be liable. Several issues are considered, including competence of both the counselor and the supervisor. Dual relationships and…

This digest focuses on characteristics of good supervisors. Only a few researchers have focused on supervisor qualities and skills, and only three very brief models of supervisor development have been proposed. Good supervisors seem to have many of the same qualities as good teachers and good counselors, i.e., being empathic, genuine, open, and…

This digest focuses on administrative skills useful to the supervision of counselors. The administrator of a supervision program is defined as the person ultimately responsible for the quality of supervision provided and the effectiveness of the supervisory staff. A section on program management notes that administrators provide leadership and…

This digest focuses on issues of supervisory evaluation and feedback. It suggests that there exist some fairly basic premises from educational psychology, educational evaluation, and counselor supervision literature that can improve supervision evaluation practices, and thus reduce the ambiguity and uncertainty about evaluation in supervision.…

This digest focuses on issues of group supervision of counselors and counselor trainees. It begins by describing the merits of group supervision, noting that group supervision is unique in that growth is aided by the interactions occurring between group members. Collaborative learning is identified as a pivotal benefit of group supervision, with…

Clinical supervision is the construction of individualized learning plans for supervisees working with clients. The systematic manner in which supervision is applied is called a "model." Three types of models are discussed in this digest; they are: developmental models; integrated models (discriminant model); and orientation-specific…

A variety of strategies and methods are available to supervisors for use with counselors whom they supervise. This digest provides a summary designed to acquaint supervisors with techniques for enhancing the counseling behavior of their supervisees while also considering individual learning characteristics as depicted by the supervisee's…

This digest reviews perspectives on the supervisory relationship from the recent supervision literature. It examines the relative importance of the relationship within the total supervision process; variables which influence the relationship; and how the relationship differs when working with experienced versus inexperienced counselors. The…

This digest focuses on issues of importance to the supervision of marriage and family counselors. A brief overview notes that the defining hallmark of marriage and family supervision has been a systemic orientation. Other distinguishing features include a reliance on live forms of supervision, and the viewing of ethical issues within larger…

This digest focuses on the use of technology in the supervision of counselors. Each generation of new technology, from audiotapes and videotapes to fax machines and virtual reality, creates challenges and opportunities for the counseling supervisor. Increased use of computer-related technologies has given this generation of supervisors new ideas…

This digest focuses on international perspectives related to counseling supervision. It describes two strands in the history and understanding of supervision, one emerging from the United States and the other from Britain. The factor that distinguishes them is the location of counseling training. In the United States counselor training has largely…

Peer counseling is defined and the rationale for using peer counselors is given in this factsheet. A discussion of the history and research on peer counseling is followed by a list of successful peer counseling program foundations. Other sections discuss the operating components of selection, training, supervision, and evaluation. The professional…

School counselors are beginning to find family counseling an effective and needed skill. Moreover, family counseling represents a distinctive alternative for resolving persistent problems in the schools. Re-training opportunities for school counselors wanting to engage in family counseling have been limited. With appropriate training,…

This digest focuses on Information Process Recall (IPR), a supervision strategy developed to increase counselor awareness of covert thoughts and feelings and to deepen the therapeutic relationship between the counselor and the client. Steps in conducting IPR are given as a guideline for conducting IPR recall sessions using audio or video tapes. To…