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AASECT Guidelines for Supervision
Tips for a Successful Experience
Prepared by Gretchen Fincke
Chair of the AASECT Supervision Committee

revised June 2008


In order to start the supervision process a SUPERVISION CONTRACT must be put in writing between the supervisor and the supervisee. The contract needs to read something like:

 

Contract of Supervision

 

This contract of supervision between __________________________________, Supervisor, and ______________________________________, Supervisee, will be in effect for (1 year? 2 years?) from date of signing.

 

Then you must include the following:

  1. Setting for supervision (e.g. office address, clinic setting)

  2. Population that the supervisee will see (men, women, adolescents, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transsexual) and in what format (individual, couples, group)

  3. The supervisee will be working with cases of DSM IV diagnoses of desire, arousal, and orgasm phase difficulties as well as medically related sexual dysfunctions. If the supervisee wants to add cases of sexual compulsivity or sexual assault survival that is fine but the emphasis should be on the DSM categories.

  4. Type of supervision: as example - "Two hours of face-to-face supervision every two weeks. Supervision may include case presentation, role-playing, audio/visual tapes (or whatever you plan to do), You can also do group supervision is you want and if so there needs to be a mix between individual and group.

  5. Include a signature line for both supervisor and supervisee with date.

You send in the original contract (MAKE COPIES) to the AASECT office along with the following materials:

Copy of supervisor's vita*;
Copy of supervisee's vita;
Copy of supervisor's AASECT Certification certificate;
Complete contact information for both including e-mail if you have it.

The AASECT office will forward the material to the supervision committee for approval. The turn around time once the committee receives the material is about 4 days and then we notify the AASECT office and they notify you that the contract has been approved. If there are any questions about the contract, the chair of the supervision committee will contact the people involved directly.

 

*If the supervisor is certified by AASECT as a supervisor, they need only send a copy of the certification certificate and do not need to send their vita.

  1. Checklist of things that are helpful in the supervision process:
    From the very beginning have the supervisee start organizing things into categories by following the categories outlined on the application for certification. Suggest folders, loose-leaf notebooks with plastic inserts. If they can stay organized then they avoid the nightmare of sorting paperwork at the end.

  2. Document, document - every workshop, class, in-service, seminar, conference. If it does not have CEs attached but does pertain to the training have them save the course description or outline.

  3. Remember that courses taken as an undergraduate do count, even if it was years ago. That may be the only time that a person took physiology or pharmacology. They can get their transcripts for documentation. If there is a big hole in their training they can go take a college course as a special student to fill in if needed.

  4. As a supervisor you need to hear how the therapist will work the whole course of the case as they go. They should have some cases that include medical complications, disease complications, and dual diagnosis complications so you can assess their ability to deal with how those issues impact on sexuality.

  5. Getting input from more than one supervisor is helpful.

  6. The supervisor should document during (or after) the supervision session what type of cases were talked about and briefly what the major issues were. Supervisors are asked to attest to the type and number of cases that the supervisee worked with during the time of supervision so supervisors need notes also. (See application form for certification)

  7. The need for extra vigorous ethical standards for sex therapists needs to be explored thoroughly. Explain what can happen if a patient accuses a therapist of inappropriate sexual behavior even when there is no grounds for it. Talk about boundary issues exhaustively.

 

©2004. American Association of Sexuality Educators Counselors & Therapists (AASECT). All rights reserved.
AASECT P.O.Box 1960, Ashland, VA 23005-1960, Tel 804.752.0026, Fax 804.752.0056 aasect@aasect.org