Supervision and peer consultation are more than regulatory requirements; they are practices of integrity, accountability, and humility that keep us honest and growing in our work. This July, our Contemplative Mental Health Leadership Group session will ground itself in these principles, focusing on the ways we engage with supervision and consultation to refine our professional practices while tending to the systems in which we work. Join us for our next meeting on July 17th 2025 at 10-11:30am MST.

Why Supervision Matters in Leadership

In many ways, leadership is the art of being held accountable while helping others find their own best path forward. Supervision is one of the few structures within our field that creates a protected space for us to examine our work honestly, face our blind spots, and receive feedback that challenges us to grow.

Yet supervision often becomes rote or defensive when we view it only as a hoop to jump through. We might dread it, minimize our challenges, or show up unprepared, losing the opportunity to receive meaningful support. In peer consultation, we may hesitate to share openly, fearing judgment or appearing incompetent.

For those interested in aligning their supervision practices with professional standards, reviewing the APA Guidelines for Clinical Supervision can support ethical, structured supervision:

Our July 17th session invites us to step back and reflect:

• What if supervision became a cornerstone of your leadership practice?
• What if consultation became a place where you brought your full humanity, your uncertainties, and your questions?
• How might engaging supervision and consultation with intention change your practice, your organization, and your sense of professional identity?

Personal Activities: Deepening Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice on Receiving Feedback

Receiving feedback is an emotional process as much as it is an intellectual one. Consider a time when you received feedback that landed heavily. Perhaps it was a supervisor gently noting a blind spot in your documentation. Perhaps a peer asked you to consider a pattern in your countertransference that you hadn’t noticed. Reflective practice, as described by Donald Schön, offers a framework for learning through intentional examination of your reactions during and after client work, deepening your growth as a clinician.

Activity:

• Journal about this moment, capturing your initial emotional reaction, your physical sensations, and the thoughts that emerged.
• Pause to consider what part of the feedback triggered a defensive response and why.
• Note one actionable insight you took from the feedback or one you could take now in retrospect.

Reflection Prompt:
How does revisiting this feedback with curiosity rather than judgment allow you to see it as a resource rather than a threat?

Values-Based Supervision Reflection

Values guide how we show up in supervision and consultation. Without articulating them, we may find ourselves drifting, responding reactively rather than intentionally. Counselors seeking to strengthen their supervision practices can explore the ACA’s supervision resources for structured guidance.

Activity:

• Identify three values that are essential to you in supervision and consultation (e.g., integrity, courage, transparency).
• Reflect on how these values guide your openness to feedback, your honesty in presenting cases, and your willingness to sit with discomfort.
• Write a short commitment statement: “In supervision, I commit to showing up with [value], even when it feels hard, because…”

Reflection Prompt:
What would it look like to let these values guide your next supervision or consultation session?

Personal Development Goals for Supervision

Supervision is a structured space for growth when used intentionally. Prelicensed clinicians tracking supervision requirements can review details through the Colorado LPC Licensing Board to align planning with current state guidelines. Before our session:

• Identify two areas you wish to develop (e.g., ethical decision-making under pressure, pacing and containment in trauma work).
• Write clear, realistic goals for each area (e.g., “I will practice pausing before intervening when I feel the urge to fix discomfort in sessions”).
• Note what support you hope to receive in supervision to advance these goals.

Reflection Prompt:
How will working on these goals improve your client work? How might they support your broader professional aspirations?

Professional Activities: Active Engagement in Supervision

Case Presentation Preparation

Choose a client case that challenges you—a moment when you felt stuck, uncertain, or emotionally reactive. Your vulnerability in presenting this case will allow the supervision space to provide meaningful feedback. If you are preparing a trauma-focused case for discussion, you may wish to learn more about EMDR therapy as part of your clinical toolkit. Additionally, if you are incorporating Dialectical Behavior Therapy with clients, this DBT resource offers a clear overview for clinicians.

Preparation Steps:

• Summarize the case (client background, presenting concerns, interventions attempted).
• Identify where you feel uncertain or where you’ve noticed patterns repeating.
• Write down specific questions for consultation (e.g., “Am I missing cultural factors in this case?” “How can I address boundaries more clearly?”).

Reflection Prompt:
What prevents you from bringing challenging cases to supervision? What support do you need to practice sharing openly?

Creating a Peer Consultation Group

While formal supervision is essential for accountability, clinical oversight, and meeting licensure requirements, peer consultation offers a unique and complementary path for professional growth. Unlike supervision, which often includes an evaluative or hierarchical component, peer consultation is grounded in reciprocity, mutual learning, and collective wisdom. It creates a space where power dynamics are flattened, allowing each participant to bring forward questions, challenges, and reflections with honesty and vulnerability.

Peer consultation groups foster a sense of community in a field that can otherwise feel isolating. They can help you explore blind spots, expand your perspective, and practice clinical humility in a safe environment. Peer consultation also supports your ethical practice by giving you a confidential space to process complex cases, consider cultural and systemic factors, and reflect on the emotional impact of your work. This shared accountability can help prevent burnout and compassion fatigue by normalizing the challenges inherent in clinical work.

Unlike supervision, peer consultation does not fulfill licensure requirements, but it fills a critical gap by offering ongoing, collegial support even after licensure is complete. It can also supplement supervision by providing a broader range of perspectives and insights, particularly when your supervisor has a different clinical lens than your peers.

To Get Started:

Identify 3–4 trusted colleagues across diverse identities, modalities, or specialties who are interested in ongoing professional growth.

Propose a structure: monthly meetings, rotating facilitation, confidentiality agreements, and clear expectations for attendance and participation.

Decide whether meetings will be virtual or in-person and clarify the format for case presentations or reflective discussions.

Pause and Reflect:

How could joining or creating a peer consultation group expand your professional resilience, clinical insight, and sense of community? What would it mean for you to have a consistent, trusted space to bring your edges, questions, and reflections outside of formal supervision?

Feedback Documentation Practice

The insights, questions, and reflections we receive in supervision and peer consultation can easily slip away in the busyness of clinical practice. Without intentional documentation, valuable feedback can be forgotten, leaving opportunities for growth untapped. Recording feedback consistently creates a living archive of your development, allowing you to track recurring themes, assess your progress, and identify areas needing further attention.

Documenting feedback also supports accountability, turning insights into concrete action steps rather than fleeting moments of insight. It allows you to revisit your emotional reactions to feedback, noting where defensiveness, discomfort, or excitement arose, and helps you connect these reactions to your growth edges as a clinician.

Over time, your feedback journal becomes a powerful supervision tool, enabling you to bring patterns and questions back to supervision or consultation for deeper exploration. It can also be a source of encouragement, reminding you of the skills you have strengthened and the areas where your intentional efforts have paid off.

Activity:

• Develop a template or journal page with:
  • Date and session type
  • Key feedback received
  • Emotional reactions noted
  • Action steps identified
  • Reflection on integration into practice

Review your notes monthly, looking for patterns in growth and recurring challenges.

Reflection Prompt:
How might documentation transform supervision from a passive experience to an integrated part of your professional development?

Administrative Activities: Structure for Accountability

Supervision Agreement Drafting

If you supervise others or receive supervision, creating a clear agreement can reduce miscommunication. Social workers may find the NASW’s supervision and consultation resources useful for structuring agreements and aligning with best practices.

When drafting your supervision agreement, consider including the following essential components to ensure clarity, structure, and mutual accountability in your supervision relationship:

• Frequency and duration of sessions
• Mutual expectations (e.g., honesty, confidentiality, preparation)
• Feedback processes and documentation
• Conflict resolution agreements

Reflection Prompt:
How does a clear agreement foster safety and trust in supervision?

Here is an example Supervision Agreement you can use and adapt.

Feedback and Evaluation System Design

Develop a post-supervision evaluation system to ensure accountability.

Elements to Include:

• Key insights and feedback
• Action steps for implementation
• Rating the usefulness of the session
• Questions to explore next time

Reflection Prompt:
How could tracking your supervision experience help you identify systemic patterns in your practice and reduce blind spots?

Professional Development Plan

Supervision should feed directly into your long-term professional development, ensuring that each session contributes to actionable, client-centered growth aligned with your role as a mental health professional.

As you prepare for supervision, consider how your goals align with the populations you serve. A counselor working with LGBTQIA+ youth may focus on strengthening safety planning and consistent session structures for clients with chronic anxiety. A social worker supporting families experiencing housing instability may seek to enhance motivational interviewing skills while navigating documentation in complex systems. A marriage and family therapist working with high-conflict couples may aim to improve de-escalation skills while integrating structured genogram work into sessions with multigenerational families. A psychologist providing assessment services may focus on refining culturally responsive evaluation practices or expanding capacity to deliver feedback in clear, supportive ways to families navigating new diagnoses.

Within supervision, you might identify three short-term goals, such as improving your documentation for Medicaid clients, practicing advanced crisis assessment, or building comfort with specific therapeutic interventions like exposure therapy for anxiety. Long-term goals may include pursuing certifications (EMDR, EFT, or assessment-focused credentials), developing a niche area aligned with your community’s needs, or preparing to step into a supervisory or leadership role within your organization.

Establish timelines for each goal, using supervision and consultation to check in on progress and adjust strategies when barriers arise. This approach keeps your growth structured while allowing flexibility as your client work evolves.

Action Steps:

• Identify 3 short-term goals and 3 long-term goals (e.g., becoming EMDR certified, improving family systems interventions).
• Set timelines with accountability check-ins.
• Use supervision and consultation to review your progress and adapt goals as needed.

Reflection Prompt:
How does aligning supervision with your professional goals support your career sustainability and integrity?

Theory Activities: Deepening Knowledge and Application

Reflective Practice Theory

Schön’s Reflective Practice Theory reminds us that growth as a clinician requires more than gaining knowledge; it requires us to pause and examine our thoughts, feelings, and actions in the context of our work. This intentional reflection transforms experiences into deeper learning, helping us recognize patterns, biases, and opportunities for change within our practice.

Activity:

• Read a summary of reflective practice in clinical supervision.
• Identify two techniques (e.g., dyadic reflection post-session, structured journaling).
• Apply them during your supervision preparation and post-session debrief.

Reflection Prompt:
How might integrating reflective practices deepen your learning and emotional processing of feedback?

Developmental Models of Supervision

Supervision needs evolve as we grow in our careers. You can explore the Integrated Developmental Model of Supervision to identify your current stage and align your supervision goals with your professional development needs.

Stage 1: Dependence – You may feel unsure, requiring clear structure, guidance, and reassurance as you build foundational skills.
Stage 2: Fluctuating Confidence – You begin taking more initiative but may experience inconsistency, seeking validation while testing your autonomy.
Stage 3: Conditional Autonomy – You demonstrate competence and independence but benefit from consultation to refine your style and address complex cases.
Stage 4: Mastery and Integration – You function with confidence and flexibility, using supervision for advanced case consultation, ethical complexities, and continued self-awareness.

Reflection Prompt:
How does understanding your development stage inform your current supervision needs and goals? Where do you see yourself in this developmental progression, and what specific support or challenges in supervision will best help you grow at this stage?

Systems Theory in Supervision

Systems Theory teaches that individuals do not exist in isolation; they are part of interconnected systems—families, workplaces, communities, and cultural environments. In therapy, this means client challenges are not viewed solely as personal struggles but as patterns influenced by the dynamics around them. In supervision, applying Systems Theory expands our lens to consider how these dynamics affect client care and how our own role as clinicians interacts within broader systems.

Supervision grounded in Systems Theory helps us recognize how family patterns, agency structures, insurance systems, and cultural contexts impact our clients and our ability to serve them effectively. It can reveal how systemic barriers—like housing instability, intergenerational trauma, or organizational policies—shape the clinical work and decisions we make.

By using supervision to examine these layers, we move beyond isolated case conceptualization and develop strategies that are responsive to the environments in which our clients live.

Activity:

• Reflect on systemic dynamics in a recent supervision session (e.g., organizational constraints, cultural dynamics).
• Identify one area where supervision helped address systemic barriers to client care.

Reflection Prompt:
How can supervision be leveraged to improve client outcomes within complex systems?

Living Leadership Through Supervision

Supervision and consultation are radical acts of accountability and humility, vital to your effectiveness as a practitioner and your sustainability as a leader in the field. Our July 17 session will focus on these structures as living practices rather than mere obligations.

We will hold space to explore:

• What it means to give and receive feedback with integrity
• How to use supervision to address systemic challenges
• The courage it takes to bring your uncertainties forward
• How supervision shapes your capacity to lead in your practice and your community

Spotlight on Supervision in Practice: Featuring Melanie E. Morris MS LPC LAC

Supervision and consultation are not abstract concepts—they are living practices embodied by leaders in our community. One such leader is Melanie E. Morris, MS LPC LAC, whose work exemplifies the balance of accountability, reflective practice, and commitment to growth we aim to cultivate in the Contemplative Community Mental Health Leadership Group. Melanie is the founder of Infiniti Counseling.

Melanie is a licensed professional counselor and licensed addiction counselor based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with a decade of experience working in private practice, treatment facilities, and nonprofit settings. She specializes in helping individuals and families heal from trauma, navigate addiction recovery, and build resilience through life’s transitions, using EMDR, ART, CBT, DBT, and Choice Theory in her approach. Melanie’s integration of Choice Theory aligns with the principles outlined by William Glasser’s Choice Theory, emphasizing client agency and responsibility in the therapeutic process.

What stands out in Melanie’s journey is her commitment to remaining both a learner and a leader. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Counselor Education and Supervision at Grand Canyon University, researching how clinical supervision impacts the professional development of new counselors. This dual role—of practitioner and researcher—demonstrates how supervision is not only a tool for individual accountability but also a pathway for contributing to the broader field.

Melanie’s ongoing research invites new counselors to reflect deeply on their supervision experiences, using structured interviews to explore how supervision shapes their skills, perspectives, and professional identities. In doing so, she creates space for new voices in the field while modeling what it means to live out a commitment to supervision as a cornerstone of ethical and effective practice.

Her dedication to holding compassionate, structured, and values-based spaces allows those she supervises to bring forward their challenges, uncertainties, and questions without fear of judgment, fostering a culture of learning and integrity.

Melanie’s practice reminds us that effective supervision requires:

• A commitment to lifelong learning.
• A willingness to receive and apply feedback.
• An openness to exploring systemic factors that impact both client care and clinician wellbeing.
• A dedication to reflective practice in both supervision received and supervision provided.

Her ongoing doctoral research, coupled with her clinical and supervisory work, illustrates how we as practitioners can integrate supervision into our leadership practices—using it as a tool for personal growth, a space for accountability, and a platform for advancing the field of mental health.

As you prepare for our upcoming session, consider:

• How are you currently using supervision to grow as a practitioner and leader?
• In what ways might you contribute back to the field, as Melanie does, by examining and refining your approach to supervision?
• How can supervision become a space for innovation and deeper alignment with your values?

We are grateful for leaders like Melanie in our community, reminding us that supervision, when approached with intention and integrity, is not a checkbox but a transformative practice that strengthens us, our clients, and the systems we seek to improve. If you would like to participate in her research please check out the flyer below.

Closing Reflection

We are not meant to do this work alone. Supervision and consultation are practices of collective care, reminding us that accountability is not punishment but a tool for growth. As we continue to build accountable, values-based practices, we strengthen the integrity of our work and honor the communities we serve.

On Thursday, July 17, from 10:00–11:30 AM, we will gather, ready to explore, to be challenged, and to refine ourselves as clinicians and leaders. Thank you for being part of this community and for showing up for your own growth and the growth of others.