Peer Supervision for the Professional Development of School Counselors: Toward an Understanding of Terms and Findings

Abstract

Current literature indicates a discrepancy between school counselors' reported desires for clinical supervision and their actual participation. To bridge this gap, peer supervision has been suggested as a viable alternative. However, a lack of definitional clarity makes it difficult to distinguish this activity from both clinical supervision and peer consultation. In this article, a definition of peer supervision is synthesized. Existing models that fit the offered definition are presented, followed by an overview of the outcomes research in this area. Recommendations for future research are also presented.

Supervision in Public Sector Behavioral Health: A Review

“…Given the press of other duties, the time needed to participate in supervision is often not afforded to either the supervisor or supervisee (e.g., Jones, 2005;Kadushin & Harkness, 2002). Resource constraints have also led agencies to replace supervision with other methods of communication and oversight, including team meetings (American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work [ABECSW], 2004), staff meetings (Borders, 2005), and peer consultation (e.g., Warman & Jackson, 2007;Wilkerson, 2006).…”

Generating support from supervisors to their subordinates in organizations under external pressure: a multilevel, multisource study of support and reciprocation in Danish elder care

“…Therefore research is needed to investigate on what methodological principles, if any, such programmes of mutual support should be based. Specifically, we may ask whether supervisors should only be given the physical and temporal space to meet with each other, or whether their meetings should take place on the basis of training in a specific method of supervision (Sloan & Watson 2002, Wilkerson 2006 or coaching (Gray 2007).…”

Crisis-Specific Peer Supervision of School Counselors: The P-SAEF Model

“…In light of continuing struggles to involve school counselors in clinical supervision, several experts identified peer supervision as a viable option for the development of school counselors (Benshoff & Paisley, 1996;Crutchfield & Borders, 1997). Wilkerson (2006) defined peer supervision as:…”

“…...a structured, supportive process in which counselor colleagues... in pairs or in groups, use their professional knowledge and relationship expertise to monitor practice and effectiveness on a regular basis for the purpose of improving specific counseling, conceptualization, and theoretical skills, (p. 62) Higher rates of participation in peer supervision indicate that it may be a more practical option for school counselors (Wilkerson, 2006), and recent findings indicate that peer supervision is beneficial for school counselors. In particular, availability of Peer supervision was related to decreased role stress (Culbreth, Scarborough, Banks-Johnson, & Solomon, 2005) and enhanced career satisfaction among practicing school counselors (Baggerly & Osborn, 2006).…”