The Importance of Competency-based Clinical Supervision and Training in the Twenty-first Century: Why Bother?

Abstract

Providing clinical supervision is challenging. Responding to the provocative question, “Why competency-based clinical supervision?” this paper provides the rationale of greater accountability in transforming supervision practice to a competency-based one. This emphasizes a focus on strength-based competency assessment and continuous professional development. Competence, an essential defining ethical component, is described. The progression of historical development of competency-based approaches in psychology, the range of available competency-based applications, and the benefits of competency-based supervision practice are discussed.