Supervision in Private Practice: Logistics, Challenges, and Strategies

As sport psychology consultants, we might believe our expertise lies in the practice of sport psychology, not in the business of sport psychology; but this circumstance seems unfortunate because navigating the business and marketing world offers much stability and freedom to a practitioner in private practice. More critically, to be a sustainable service in public consciousness, we need to market our services accessibly and sustainably. The goals of this chapter are threefold. First, I examine how marketing principles apply to a sport and exercise psychology business. Second, I explore the strategies to market practitioners and their services. Finally, I use my private practice as an illustration and model to follow in marketing one’s private practice with face-to-face and online services. One overarching goal in this chapter is to remain focused on the principles and practices to bring your practice to the public whilst establishing and maintaining an accessible and engaging writing style. I intend to keep the tone of this chapter conversational to echo the practical challenges marketing one’s private practice.

Traditionally, professionals in the mental health field have been permitted to regulate themselves under the ethical condition that they place the welfare of the general public above their own interests (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). The counseling profession has used the practice of supervision to monitor the welfare of those served by assessing the performance and professional competence of both trainees and new professionals (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). Consideration of the practice of supervision in school settings had been limited until the past two decades, during which a growing body of research informed the applied practice of supervising school counseling trainees who were enrolled in master's degree programs (Baker, Exum, & Tyler, 2002; Cigrand & Wood, 2011; Getz, 1999; Henderson, 1994; Nelson & Johnson, 1999; Peterson & Deuschle, 2006; Roberts & Morotti, 2001; Stickel, 1995; Studer, 2005, 2006; Wood & Rayle, 2006). Studer (2006) noted that attention to the practice of supervision for school counselor trainees has ensured that individuals with whom the trainee works are not negatively affected. However, Studer also commented that discussion of using supervision to support new school counseling professionals continues to receive little attention. This concern was also identified by Moyer (2011), who noted that the limited material about school counselor supervision is rapidly becoming outdated. This study addresses this inadequacy by documenting the supervision experiences of 11 new professional school counselors. Background Henderson (1994) and Studer (2005, 2006) have documented the shortage of competent professional school counselors who are trained and/or certified to provide supervision in schools. Studer (2006) noted that formal training in the practice of supervision is generally limited to specialist and doctoral programs rather than master's degree programs. As a result, the supervision of new school counselors is most often provided by professional school counselors and/or principals who have had no formal training in supervision. An additional concern is that professional school counselors who have been trained in supervision received training in supervision theories, models, and modalities that were designed and implemented for use in clinical settings, such as mental health agencies and private practices. Until recently, these supervision training experiences failed to address the unique application of supervision in school settings (Getz, 1999; Henderson, 1994; Studer, 2006). Studies focusing on post-degree supervision of professional school counselors have documented the underutilized practice of school counselor supervision in schools and included recommendations for the practice and delivery of supervision for school counseling professionals who have completed their formal educational training. Samples of these recommendations include peer supervision (Agnew, Vaught, Getz, & Fortune, 2000; Borders, 1991; Crutchfield & Borders, 1997), peer consultation (Benshoff & Paisley, 1996), group supervision (Crutchfield et al., 1997; Gainor & Constantine, 2002), and clinical supervision (Henderson & Lampe, 1992; Sutton & Page, 1994). Several authors have focused their work specifically on theories, models, and modalities of supervision that attempt to address the practice of supervision for professional school counselors (Borders, 1989; Getz 1999; Nelson & Johnson, 1999; Page, Pietrzak, & Sutton, 2001; Peace, 1995; Protivnak, 2003). While it is critical that school counselors develop counseling skills as part of the delivery of a comprehensive guidance and counseling program (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2010), the responsibilities of school counselors also include the development of skills in individual student planning, guidance curricula, and system support. As Devlin, Smith, and Ward (2009) concluded, few supervision models meet the complex needs presented by school counselors. …

The Board of Sport Psychologists was established in the Australian Psychological Society in 1991 with the aim to promote sport psychology as a profession in Australia. It has attempted to achieve this in a number of ways. The Board has supported a four (undergraduate) plus two (specialist coursework masters) plus two (specialist supervised practice) training model, and produced guidelines for course approvals of specialist masters courses. Four course-work masters programs now have students. Career opportunities represent an important issue for board promotion, with only seven sport psychologists currently employed in the sports institutes and few in private practice, although positions in the tertiary sector have increased from 9 to 20 in the last two years. Research in this area appears well established, with more than 50 Australian-based contributions to articles in the four major sport psychology journals since 1987. Rapid increases in research student numbers in the 1990s are likely to build on this publication base. From 1990 to 1994, masters and doctoral students increased from 17 to 66 in the five universities with well-established research programs in sport psychology. The Board has produced an ethics document, and this combined with specialist training will assist in the promotion of appropriate standards of practice in sport psychology. It is proposed that the establishment of the Board has played a major role in enhancing the professional and academic status of sport psychology. There is further potential for development of the discipline and the profession in Australia through the activities of the Board of Sport Psychologists.

Supervision forms an integral part of psychiatric nursing. The value of clinicalsupervision has been demonstrated widely in research. Despite efforts made toward advancedpsychiatric nursing, supervision seems to be non-existent in this field. The aim of this study was to explore and describe advanced psychiatric nursepractitioners' ideas and needs with regard to supervision in private practice in order tocontribute to the new efforts made in advanced psychiatric nursing in South Africa. A qualitative, descriptive, exploratory, and contextual design using a phenomenological approach as research method was utilised in this study. A purposive sampling was used. Eight advanced psychiatric nurse practitioners in private practice described their ideas and needs for supervision during phenomenological interviews. Tesch's method of open coding was utilised to analyse data. After data analysis the findings were recontextualised within literature. The data analysis generated the following themes - that the supervisor should have or possess: (a) professional competencies, (b) personal competencies and (c) specificfacilitative communication skills. The findings indicated that there was a need for supervision of advanced psychiatric nurse practitioners in private practice in South Africa. This study indicates that there is need for supervision and competent supervisors in private practice. Supervision can be beneficial with regard to developing a culture of support for advanced psychiatric practitioners in private practice and also psychiatric nurse practitioners.

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how the field of sport and exercise psychology has evolved, especially from a curriculum point of view, and how this has influenced the teaching of sport and exercise psychology, including innovative strategies for assessment and approaches to teaching. After providing a brief history and current and future issues within the field, the purposes and rationales for curriculum development are discussed. The influences of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) in the United States and the British Psychological Association and the Health and Care Professions Council in the United Kingdom on curriculum development and accreditation of programs helped determine the focus of curriculum development. Specifically, if individuals wanted to be certified in applied sport psychology, they had to complete certain courses and had a certain amount of supervised experiences. Next the core content areas that make up the field of sport and exercise psychology are discussed. These include many topic areas including individual differences (e.g., anxiety, personality, motivation), group dynamics (group cohesion, social loafing, group roles and norms), exercise related to well-being, adherence, and addictive behaviors, burnout, moral development, psychological skills, and psychology of injury. Strategies to enhance assessment and teaching/learning are offered including flipping the classroom, breaking classes into teams, teaching psychological skills through the use of Transtheoretical Model principles, as well as innovative ways to perform formative and summative assessments. These teaching strategies are followed by a discussion of some of the major challenges and lessons learned regarding the teaching of sport and exercise psychology. These challenges include determining the necessary requirements of becoming an accredited sport psychology graduate program as curriculum development will likely accreditation requirements for those universities wanting graduate-level accreditation as well as providing both more applied and theoretically oriented curriculum for those individuals wanting careers in applied sport psychology as well as those wanting to focus on becoming a university faculty member. Furthermore, future curriculums will need to include information geared toward professionals wanting to focus more on counseling or clinical interventions vs. those interested in sport performance.

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how the field of sport and exercise psychology has evolved, especially from a curriculum point of view, and how this has influenced the teaching of sport and exercise psychology, including innovative strategies for assessment and approaches to teaching. After providing a brief history and current and future issues within the field, the purposes and rationales for curriculum development are discussed. The influences of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) in the United States and the British Psychological Association and the Health and Care Professions Council in the United Kingdom on curriculum development and accreditation of programs helped determine the focus of curriculum development. Specifically, if individuals wanted to be certified in applied sport psychology, they had to complete certain courses and had a certain amount of supervised experiences. Next the core content areas that make up the field of sport and exercise psychology are discussed. These include many topic areas including individual differences (e.g., anxiety, personality, motivation), group dynamics (group cohesion, social loafing, group roles and norms), exercise related to well-being, adherence, and addictive behaviors, burnout, moral development, psychological skills, and psychology of injury. Strategies to enhance assessment and teaching/learning are offered including flipping the classroom, breaking classes into teams, teaching psychological skills through the use of Transtheoretical Model principles, as well as innovative ways to perform formative and summative assessments. These teaching strategies are followed by a discussion of some of the major challenges and lessons learned regarding the teaching of sport and exercise psychology. These challenges include determining the necessary requirements of becoming an accredited sport psychology graduate program as curriculum development will likely accreditation requirements for those universities wanting graduate-level accreditation as well as providing both more applied and theoretically oriented curriculum for those individuals wanting careers in applied sport psychology as well as those wanting to focus on becoming a university faculty member. Furthermore, future curriculums will need to include information geared toward professionals wanting to focus more on counseling or clinical interventions vs. those interested in sport performance.KeywordsSport psychologyCertificationPsychological skillsResearchExercise behavior change

The topic of supervision has been a late arrival in the applied sport psychology world of discussion and debate. The field of performance psychology is even newer than sport psychology, and there is little in this field that addresses useful models of supervision. This chapter focuses on supervision in applied sport psychology. Supervision in our field has borrowed extensively from mainstream counseling and clinical psychology models. There is no real, viable model of supervision based on the cognitive-behavioral therapy derived psychological skills training (PST) paradigm that seems to be dominant in our field. One of the current trends in counseling and clinical psychology has been the exploration of the usefulness of mindfulness in a variety of therapeutic settings. In this chapter, I review the applied sport psychology literature on supervision and how advancements in mindfulness and the field of interpersonal neurobiology (neural correlates of presence, attunement, and resonance between therapists and clients and supervisors and supervisees) can inform applied sport (and performance) psychology practice. As a psychodynamic/Buddhist philosophy-oriented psychotherapist and supervisor, I argue that a mindfulness approach to sport and performance psychology supervision (and treatment) service delivery is a transtheoretical model that could be applicable to almost any of the helping professions. I conclude this chapter with a case example of how a mindfulness-based psychodynamic approach to beginning supervision might sound and feel like for the practitioner and the supervisee.

In this chapter, Hannah and Paul tell their unique stories of setting up their sport and exercise psychology practice as businesses in the UK. Hannah established a successful group consultancy business and shares advice and guidance in the first half of this chapter. She explores how she began, getting those first clients, how and why group consultancy works for her, and finishes with tips and advice on how to navigate the minutia of this type of work. In the second half of this chapter, Paul discusses the lessons learned to open and run a thriving private practice over the past 15 years and, more recently, launching an online directory of Sport Psychologists. The training routes in sport and exercise psychology prepare practitioners for the practice of sport psychology rather than the business of sport psychology. The business of sport psychology, therefore, requires practitioners to learn from supervisors and other successful entrepreneurs in the field. With a proliferation of digital services for business, almost everything to begin and develop your business can be planned and executed from a computer with internet access. The future of private practice is awash with opportunities for the faithful practitioner.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the arguments against certification in sport psychology presented by Anshel (1992). Anshel’s central arguments were (a) certification will diminish rather than promote the field of sport psychology, (b) Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) certification favors professionals trained in psychology, and (c) AAASP certification is inappropriately reliant on clinical psychology as a model for the practice of sport psychology. These criticisms of certification are rebutted by clearly defining certification and related terms, professing an adequate scientific knowledge base in sport psychology to support practice, identifying fraudulent practice as unrelated to certification, clarifying procedures used in developing AAASP certification criteria, and presenting evidence that sport psychology professionals trained in the sport sciences are not less favored for AAASP certification and that clinical psychology is not used as the model for practice in sport psychology.

Qualitative research has demonstrated the prevalence of gender inequity and sexism in sport-related careers, including those in sport psychology. To provide quantitative evidence, we examined the role of gender in Certified Mental Performance Consultants’ (CMPC) specialization and employment by extracting and coding the data (N = 576) from the CMPC Directory. Independent samples t tests showed that male CMPCs specialized in more masculine sports, less feminine sports, and a similar number of gender-neutral sports compared with female CMPCs. Chi-square tests of independence revealed a larger proportion of male than female CMPCs working in professional sport. No significant differences were found in other employment settings (college sport, military, and private practice), age-group specialization, and mental health licensure. These findings, which should be interpreted with caution before further investigation, suggest a need for collaboration between sport psychology professionals and sport organizations that might help mitigate internal and external barriers to gender equity.

Part 1: Introduction 1. Reflecting on reflection and journeys Part 2: Critical perspectives within reflective practice 2. Using reflective practice in the development of exercise-related interventions 3. Where's the evidence? A review of empirical reflective practice research within sport 4. Reflecting forward: Exploring reflective methodologies with/for children 5. Keeping the cat alive: 'getting' reflection as part of professional practice Part 3: Pedagogical approaches to reflective practice 6. Sink or Swim: Case Study Reflections from an undergraduate Football Scientist 7. Enhancing the skills of students through the use of reflective practice in a physical activity and health curriculum 8. Reflections on Reflection: Some Personal Experiences of Delivering Higher Education Coach Education 9. Facilitating reflective practice in graduate trainees and early career practitioners 10. Reflective Practice and the realms of Physiotherapy Part 4: Applied practice: Reflective practice in action 11. They never bought me flowers: Storytelling as a means of critical reflection on applied sport psychology practice 12. Critical reflections from sports physiology and nutrition: Tales from pitch side to ringside 13. Using critical incident reflection in qualitative research: Transferable skills for sport psychologists 14. Mindful Supervision in Sport and Performance Psychology: Building the Quality of the Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship 15. The utility of reflective practice during the provision of sport psychology support 16. Reflective practice in talent development: A narrative inquiry of a coaching psychology intervention Part 5: Reflecting forwards 17. Reflecting back and forwards 18. References

Summary Evaluation of psychotherapy trainees under the two situations of individual and group supervision is examined. Ss were 24 individual and six group supervisors of 49 psychotherapy trainees (12 male, 37 female) of the Psychology Graduate School of Tel-Aviv University. A 32-item questionnaire was individually administered to all 30 Ss. It was factor analyzed separately for individual and group situations and a Varimax rotation performed. Four factors emerged for each situation and high loaded items were distributed across four relevant constructs; being with, doing to, relationship, and criteria. Individual supervision clearly relates to the “being with” construct and there is a communality between this and evaluation items forming a criteria construct. The group supervisor situation emphasizes social and interactional characteristics. It would seem that supervisor perception of students is at least partly molded by the situational context of individual and group supervision. These two different training situations generate different evaluation of the same students.

PurposeResearch supports the value of clinical supervision as an essential aspect of mental health nursing. Despite the need for this, there appears to be a deficit in qualified supervision in the mental health field, although efforts have been made toward advanced mental health practitioner nursing. This study aims to characterize the ideas that advanced mental health nurse practitioners hold about supervision in practice and to consider what is required to support changes to advanced mental health nursing in Saudi Arabia.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative exploratory design that applied a phenomenological approach as the research method. Twelve postgraduate mental health nurses were recruited through purposive sampling.FindingsThe data analysis generated the central theme, which indicates the attributes of a competent supervisor of advanced mental health nurse practitioners. The components of a supervisor’s competence had the following three main themes: nursing competencies, professional characteristics and communication.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this study is that the data was collected from practicing advanced care mental health practitioners in Saudi Arabia. Further research conducted in different geographical areas and with different categories of staff is warranted. The results of those studies could be compared against the results presented here.Practical implicationsBest practice measures indicated that mental health nurse practitioners working in mental health settings and private practice should receive supervision to help them reflect upon their daily nursing practice challenges.Originality/valueThe findings of this study indicate that to support mental health practitioners and advanced mental health practitioners working in private practice, competent supervisors need to be on hand and willing to invest in creating a supportive culture in practice.

Current article includes an analysis of interviewing in sport psychology, an observing of modern scientific interview protocols, a description of interview cases in private practice and research; also there is a discussion about efficiency and limitations of interview method in the article. Approaches to interviewing as the main and auxiliary method are discussed in details. The objective of the article is to show how an interview can reveal interesting biographical facts, personality traits, the installation of an athlete, to reflect his inner world, and to form working in the field of sport psychology professionals and students view on the advantages and opportunities an interview in the work of sports psychologist (research and practice). This method can be regarded as a tool of knowledge, but is also used as a preliminary interview before long-term or short-term therapeutic work. Clinical conversation as one of the options the interview are invited to the discussion; the article provides a common protocol for clinical interviews in the sport.

Clinical supervision is recognized as a distinctive area of practice and expertise, yet professional preparation in this area remains inadequate. This paper presents functional information describing the development and implementation of an experimental course on administration, supervision, and private practice, based on graduate student perceptions and preferences for course content and types of learning activities. Current pedagogical trends for universal design in learning and fostering student engagement were emphasized, including problem-based and collaborative learning. Results suggest that students were highly pleased with course content, interactive and group activities, as well as with assessment procedures used.