Supervision III: Supervision Specific to Social Work

Fulfills requirement: This course fulfills, in part, the requirements for Supervision in CA and other states. Verify requirements with your state board.

Course fulfills the New Jersey Supervision Requirement for LCSW.

Note: As this course is designed for social workers, it is not approved by New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners for LMHCs or psychologists, nor is this course eligible for NBCC or APA credit.

This course has broad applicability in that its utility extends to supervisors of social workers across direct practice disciplines, such as mental health, medical, aging and independence, child and family, housing and food security, immigration and refugee settings. It is intended as continuing education for all types of social work supervisors, including supervisors of social workers pursuing clinical licensure, supervisors within the professional practice setting, and field supervisors of undergraduate and graduate social work interns.

Content includes several articles available in a choice of audio and written formats. It begins with best practices related to social work supervision developed by the National Association of Social Workers and the Association of Social Work Boards. Particular attention is given to supervisor qualifications, cultural awareness, ethical issues (e.g., boundaries, confidentiality), and distance supervision. Logistical considerations for social work supervision are also discussed, namely the use of external supervision, barriers to retention in the field as it relates to supervision, and the challenges and benefits of non-social workers as supervisors.

The next two articles in the course cover more advanced issues – ethical decision-making in supervision and strategies for trauma-informed supervision. Clinicians will learn steps for making ethical decisions associated with boundaries in supervision and specific strategies for dealing with indirect trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue. The course concludes with an open access journal article that contains practical examples of emotionally-informed teaching and learning activities that support supervisors as they, in turn, support their supervisees.

Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course. They include updates on social work supervision laws and regulations in California, Florida, and Texas.