Episode 19: Supervising Therapy Students in Your Practice with Julie Desjardins

Kayla: Welcome back to Your Clinical Supervisors Coach podcast, and I’m your host, Kayla Das.

In today’s episode, Julie Desjardins, Registered Psychotherapist, clinical director and clinical supervisor, will share how to supervise therapy students in your practice.

Hi Julie. Welcome to the show. I’m so glad to have you here today.

Julie: Thank you so much for having me.

Julie, before we dive into today’s episode, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your practice and clinical supervision journey, including how you became a clinical supervisor for students specifically.

Julie: So, I am a registered psychotherapist in Ontario. I am a clinical director in a supervisor in a group practice in Ottawa. I’ve been working in the mental health field since 2007 and started my solo practice in 2017. I’m a Yorkville alumni, and I’ve always wanted to give back to my community by offering students and junior therapists an opportunity to complete their practicum in a private practice.

I identify as an inclusive and eclectic therapist, but through the years, I trained and explored various approaches and clientele that fascinated me. After the pandemic, my caseload became quite full. Like a lot of people have experienced.

But in 2022, I decided to take Clinical Supervisor training course so that I can be a qualified and approved supervisor with the CRPO. And then I approached several universities in my local community, including Yorkville, to inform them that I was taking master’s students by offering a practicum site and supervision. I don’t regret this decision on becoming a supervisor, and I often get inspired by my supervisees and witness their growth and development, transforming themselves into a therapist that they aspire to be.

Kayla: Amazing. So first of all, can you explain the different roles and expectations say between a clinical supervisor for a therapist who have graduated university and then clinical supervision or being a clinical supervisor for therapy students?

Julie: Absolutely. So, a few points to consider. The first is who is being supervised or who are you supervising? So, students are not yet registered with the CRPO. And can only work under the supervision of a trained and approve registered psychotherapist, so an RP or another psychotherapy professional, such as a registered social worker or a psychologist.

However, qualifying or independent RPs continue to receive supervision in order to meet CRPO requirements. The second thing is you got to consider the purpose or the scope of supervision. So, students generally require a higher ratio of supervisions, for example, one hour of supervision per week, or one hour for maybe four to five clients that the supervisee is seeing.

The supervisor has a broad oversight of all clinical activities, such as case management, client contact, and legal compliance. And the responsibility is shared with the educational program. However, with qualifying and independent RPs, their purpose for supervision is more on a targeted support and developmental practices.

Next, we have to consider the responsibility and the liability for students. The liability is shared between the supervisor and the educational program. But for qualifying and independent RPs, the supervisor is only responsible for the clinical oversight, quality of the client care.

And lastly, the power dynamics and ethical consideration. In both roles, supervision involves a formal power differential where confidentiality and professional boundaries must be maintained and supervisors must avoid dual relationships or professional misconduct, right? That’s really important to be aware of.

But final takeaways, for students’ supervision is highly structured to help them learn to practice psychotherapy safely. That’s important so for RP supervision shifts to professional growth, more reflective and autonomously driven.

Kayla: What are the benefits and challenges when supervising students?

Julie: So, there’s a few benefits and a few challenges. More benefits, right? You have to consider the professional growth, right? So, you get to deepen your own clinical skills through teaching, mentoring, and reflecting on your own practice. You get to refine case conceptualization and ethical reasoning as you explain and justify your decisions. And it keeps you current with new theories, research, and practices that are taught in academic settings.

Another benefit that I would consider is the contribution to the profession. It helps to shape the next generation of therapists fostering competent and ethical practitioners. You get to enhance the overall quality and availability of mental health services in your community, and you get to build connections with academic institutions and other professionals.

Another benefit that I’ve noticed is practice support. So, students can offer additional supports to clients. For example, co-facilitating some groups, observe or job shadowing sessions with the supervisor or even assist with administrative desk tasks. But you also get to improve the access to care for clients via reduced cost or more affordable therapy options provided by the student.

Lastly, for benefits. You get to a lot of reflective in your practice, right? So, you promote a structured opportunity for self-reflection and feedback exchange between you, the supervisor, and the supervisee. And you get to encourage ethical vigilance and careful considerations of clinical reasoning.

So, challenges. There can be a few to consider. First and most important to thing to consider is time and energy. You invest a lot of time and energy into supervising students, which requires significant time to observe, to meet, to review documentation during the process of supervision. You may add to your workload without an immediate compensation.

Another thing to consider that could be challenging is the legal and ethical responsibility. So, supervisors share the responsibility for students’ action in a clinical practice, including the liability for harm done. You must ensure that students stay within the scope of practice and have the legal permissions, especially for performing the act of psychotherapy. And you have to have really careful attention on documentation and so that it meets the CRPO’s supervision standards.

Another challenge would be the variable student readiness. Students that enter practicum with different levels of emotional maturity, clinical skills, and self-awareness, but you also see that you may need to change or manage difficult learning curves. You may get resistance to feedback or personal issues that are impacting the practice, or the student’s ethical practice in the psychotherapy.

Another thing to consider that could be challenging is the power dynamics. The supervisory relationships involves a clear power imbalance. There might be ethical concerns that may arise, so you have to be careful of not having dual relationships, or you might get evaluation anxiety, or even create dependency between you, yourself, the supervisor, and the supervisee.

Another thing is administrative burden. Supervisors are expected to keep thorough records of supervision hours, topics, and progress. There’s also the coordination with academic programs. Midterm and final evaluations and liaising with faculty can be really time consuming.

However, I have a few tips for balancing it all because it is possible for it to achieve success in supervision. You get to set clear expectations at the beginning, so having clear roles, communication, boundaries, and confidentiality. Another really important thing is to have a written supervision agreement that is aligned with the CRPO and the institutional requirements.

You get to maintain structured supervision sessions, having an agenda with feedback and creating a development plan. Seeking your own supervision or peer consultation is really important and building a supportive learning environment while maintain accountability and clear professional standards. All good stuff.

Kayla: I love all that and there’s so many different points I want to touch on. So first of all, I’m going to talk about kind of some of the pros or like the benefits. So investing in our profession. I currently have two students in my agency, and so as most listeners know, I’m a social worker. And honestly, investing in the profession is so important because these are going to be your colleagues in the future.

Not only that, some universities are actually having a challenge in being able to place students. With that, you being able to take on students and supervising students can be really helpful in obviously not only their growth, but as well as allowing students to be able to graduate on time, because nothing is more stressful than having to try to find a placement.

The other side of this as well, you talked about access to clients, and I’m going to put on my business hat here. Is the affordable access to clients is really important. But this is also passive income for you and your practice, because of course, traditionally you’re not paying to have a student, but then the student can help increase your income into your practice. While you support clients who you may not have had the opportunity to work with, and make it more accessible to clients who can’t afford your full rates. So, it is like a win-win-win in my books.

I do want to touch on some of the cons or limitations, I guess we’ll say as well. So, the clinical readiness and experiences, definitely supervising a student in your practice is going to be a little different than when you’re hiring an independent contractor.

Obviously, an independent contractor, for all intent of purposes, kind of know what they’re doing. But again, going back to the pro is that you get to shape how they show up in the world, right? Like what their readiness might be. Also, there may be a time where it might not be the right practicum or placement too, and again, that could also be a challenge for supervisors. What do I do now? Do I terminate the placement? Do I continue to support the student? Do I find other tasks that could also fulfill their learning goals?

The next piece, and this kind of goes into the, I guess the paperwork side of it. I can tell you, especially if you’re taking on some students, there’s going to be paperwork, right? like there’s the onboarding. I know with one of my students, I had to take a 10-hour course. Which I was able to kind of go through it pretty quickly. The point is, is sometimes you need to take courses, sometimes you need to attend seminars, onboarding. This needs to be something you want to invest in, right? Obviously, that ongoing clinical supervision, like you mentioned Julie. It might be every week, it might be every two weeks, depending on the school. There’s learning plans. Midterms. Final evaluations. Sometimes you need to coordinate this with the university because sometimes they want to come in and see the student in their placement. So, it does take more effort. But in my opinion, I think the rewards are so much better.

Julie: I couldn’t agree more. You’re right there mentioning all these points. It’s really important to, again, there are a lot of good factors, the pros and cons you have to consider, but I agree with everything that you said, Kayla. it is a win-win situation.

I find that you get to give back to your community, whether it’s through the academic community or just the community in general, because you yourself have an opportunity to shape and train and mentor these aspiring therapy students who are kind of looking up to us in guidance and motivation. But we get to teach them, especially in my private practice, the business side of things, like they learn about the marketing, about social media, about the importance of making sure that the clients show up, that they paid for their sessions and all of those things that we don’t get to learn in our university programs.

So, offering them an opportunity in our private practice in the community to teach them these things, it’s really rewarding.

Kayla: I couldn’t agree more. So, for any listeners who’ve never thought about supervising therapy students before, how can they get started? I mean, where does one even start to look for a student?

Julie: Absolutely. Good question. First, you have to be a regulated mental health professional. I think that’s a given that you have to be, whether it’s registered psychotherapist, a social worker, or psychologist, you have to be registered and in good standing with a regulatory body in your province, territory, or state. You do have to meet the clinical experience requirements. Usually, it’s about a minimum of five years of clinical experience in psychotherapy. Sometimes they ask for a specific hour, so accumulating a minimum of 1000 direct client hours and have completed at least a minimum of 150 hours of your own clinical supervision.

Another thing to consider that is really important is completing a supervision focused formal training. So, there’s a variety of different trainings out there, whether it’s in person in your community, or virtual or online, or learn as you go. But oftentimes regulatory body asks for a minimum of 30 plus hours of clinical supervision training. Usually, those topics cover supervisory roles and responsibilities, ethical and legal considerations, and different types of models of supervision. Just to give you an example.

Another thing to consider for those who are considering becoming a supervisor is to develop a supervision framework and documentation. So, kind of having a process that you can follow along. So, kind of developing supervision contract template, having a good knowledge of supervision models and what is expected for record keeping. Having good strategies for giving feedback and evaluating supervisory performance is also important.

Last but not least, you must approach various educational institutions in order to be added on their list of approved supervisors or offering a practicum site for students.

Kayla: I’d like to add one more, and this is actually how I found most of my students and actually have been able to secure an ongoing placement with the university, is posting in Facebook groups. There are so many students, whether they’re social work students, master counseling, psychology, looking for placements everywhere, and they don’t know where to look. So, they’re turning to social media to find those placements.

So, I can tell you I did one post and in a few different Canadian therapist groups. I had, I think it was around 25 different applicants, and I’m now filled up for over a year, and it’s because I’ve actually turned people away. So even just putting a post out there that you have a practicum available and you could even indicate in the post like who would be a good fit and who might not be, that’s going to help you find students as well.

Julie: Absolutely. I agree. I myself keep receiving interested applicants sending their resumes, showing interest in being motivated to start their practicum. I’ve had to refuse students as well, especially for us in my private practice, because we are in a bilingual community here in Ottawa, Ontario.

One of my requirements for practicum students is that they are bilingual in French and English, but it doesn’t mean that no one is illegible. I do review everybody’s resumes. Letters of intent, and if it could be a really good fit, then I invite them for an interview, and then we get that to decide if it’d be a good fit for the practicum. And for them to meet all of the requirements for their educational institution.

Kayla: Amazing. So, when deciding to supervise a student, what consideration should therapists and clinical supervisors consider? Both from the interview process, but as well as with the professional relationship with the students?

Julie: Absolutely. So, there’s definitely a few things to consider for each one of these factors. So, the first one, when you are interviewing or selecting a potential student, first and foremost, the readiness and fit to practice psychotherapy in a private practice or in the community during their practicum.

So, you have to look at their educational background. Is the student at an appropriate stage of their training? You got to consider their therapeutic orientation as well. A lot of students learn the basics models of CBT, psychodynamic, and some trauma informed approaches. But it may not be enough. You got to consider the emotional maturity and self-awareness of the student as well. Are they reflective? Are they able to receive feedback? And are they open to growth?

And what about their motivation and their goals? You have to really consider and discuss that with them, right? Can they articulate why they chose your setting and what they hope to learn? Also, their cultural humility. Are they curious and respectful about identity, privilege, and systemic issues in therapy?

Another thing to consider would be the scope of practice and their capacity. So, what types of clients and cases will the student encounter? Can your practice accommodate the level of support, the time, and the oversight that is needed? And will they be exposed to any high risk or vulnerable populations? And are they ready for that?

Another thing to consider is the program requirements, right? Do you clearly understand the school’s expectations, in terms of supervising a student? And will you be required to complete midterms and final evaluations, attend meetings, or collaborate with faculty? Those are important things to consider.

Another thing to add onto that when you’re trying to build a safe and ethical supervisory relationship, you have to look at the boundaries and power dynamics. So, you have to really be aware of inherent power imbalance. You have to maintain clear professional boundaries, and you have to set expectations early about the availability, the communication, and the confidentiality.

We also have to look at a written supervision agreement. Having a signed agreement is really mandatory. It sets the role and responsibilities. You get to outline the frequency and the format of supervision. It also describes the expectations around documentation, client contact, confidentiality, and at-risk populations. And you also have to look at the process for feedback and conflict resolution. How are you going to handle as a supervisor these types of situations between you and the supervisee?

Considers a supervision structure. Are you providing consistent structured supervision? You have to offer the space for case consultation, emotional processing, and self-reflection. And you also have to consider the skill building and development planning with the student.

There’s also client safety and risk management. You have to ensure that you’re prepared to monitor clinical risk, especially since students may not always recognize the red flags. For example, suicide ideation, abuse, boundary issues, right? Those are important things that you have to kind of oversee with them on a regular basis.

You have to review the client work closely, including their notes, their session recordings, and their treatment planning as well. Documentation and evaluation. That’s also important. That as a supervisor, you are involved in reviewing their client record keeping style. You yourself, as a supervisor, have to keep detailed supervision logs or notes.

And you have to maintain transparency in valuation. So, you have to discuss concerns early on document the progress and evaluate the different stages of the student’s process.

A few additional questions that I would suggest for supervisors to ask themselves. Do I have the time and the emotional bandwidth and the interest to supervise well? Am I clear on liability? You have to double check with your professional liability insurance if it allows you to supervise students in your practice. And am I trained and confident in providing supervision? Because it’s not just providing therapy to another colleague, right? This is supervision. You’re overseeing a student therapist. How they’re working. How they’re interacting. How the client care is overseen in the practice.

Kayla: I have actually one more consideration too is that often when we are sometimes taking on students in private practice, it’s to make additional money. Like going back to what we were talking about earlier, being able to create that passive income but also be able to provide accessible therapy to people.

However, it’s important to determine is the only reason you’re taking a student to make money. Because if that is the case and there’s no intrinsic motivation to take on students. It may not be the right fit.

And let me give you an example. I actually talk about this all the time, and we talk about passive income. I’m actually writing a book currently, and it’s about passive income in private practice. And I always tell people that passive income should follow your purpose, fit your personality, and follow your client’s path.

Obviously, in therapy, your clients are coming in through the door, so that’s a no brainer in this case. However, does it fit your overall purpose? Like again, it needs to be intrinsically motivating. Are you actually doing what it is you want to do? Is this a placement, you truly want as a student? But is it also being a clinical supervisor, truly what you want to do, like to teach people, to advise people, to support people, to all of those reasons.

Also, does it fit your personality? Are you someone who, I don’t want to say you always have to enjoy supervision. But like you shouldn’t hate it. If you hate it, it may not be the right passive income for you. It might be a different passive income stream might be better for implementing into your practice. So, I just wanted to highlight that too, because you did touch on some of that, Julie, but I just wanted to kind of tie in my own framework into there too.

Julie: Absolutely. I agree. Definitely, you have to have the passion of not only doing therapy with your own clients, but supervising students and other registered professionals that it flows in your blood. You get to do this day in and day out. Like you said, you don’t have to have nightmares about it. But you get to want to enjoy it. You’re giving back. And it is a win-win situation if you’re really committed to launching yourself in supervision.

Kayla: So, Julie, you provide clinical supervision. Can you share with listeners a little bit about your style of supervision and which jurisdictions you currently practice in?

Julie: Absolutely. So, I am located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. My supervision approach is rooted in collaborative mentorship, reflective practice, and professional consultation. I provide supervision to therapists who are committed to developing their clinical skills, deepening their self-awareness, and offering ethical client-centered care.

Supervision is viewed as a mutual learning process, but one that requires openness, curiosity, and a shared commitment to growth for both myself and the supervisee. Meetings are offered virtually or in person, and they’re tailored to individual goals and to provide a space for self-exploration around therapeutic challenges, strengthening interventions, and evaluating the effective use of self in a clinical setting.

Kayla: Amazing. So how can people reach out to you if they would like to book a consult?

Julie: Absolutely. So, you can go to my website. All of my information in regards to clinical supervision is listed there. You can also approach the clinic directly via email or phone. And we also have our Facebook page Desjardins Psychotherapy. You’re more than welcome to check ourselves out on social media and don’t hesitate to reach out for with some questions.

Kayla:  to receive clinical supervision from Julie, check out Julie’s website at desjardinspsychotherapy.com/clinicalsupervision

Or you can simply scroll down to the show notes and click on the link.

Julie, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today to discuss how to supervise therapy students in a private practice.

Julie: Thank you so much for having me, Kayla. It was enjoyable.

Kayla: Thank you everyone for tuning into today’s episode, and I hope you join me again soon on your Clinical Supervisor’s Couch podcast.

Until next time, bye for now.