Supervision Essentials for Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive–behavioral therapies are the most popular form of mental health services offered today. But with this popularity comes an urgent need for standardized training and education for emerging cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) clinicians.

This handy guide offers an evidence-based approach to supervision of emerging CBT practitioners. The authors' approach is based on two key concepts: feedback that is geared toward strengths as well as weaknesses, and stimulates problem-solving and growth; and demonstration, by which a supervisor takes part in role-playing exercises and even shows videos of his or her own work with clients, in order to model the experiential knowledge trainees need to succeed.

Using a wealth of case examples, including material from a supervision session with a real trainee (from the DVD Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy Supervision, also available from APA Books), Newman and Kaplan demonstrate how trainees can learn to think like effective CBT practitioners, from conceptualizing cases and matching interventions to the individual needs of each client, to the comprehensive and subtle understandings of cultural competency and professional ethics.

Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Essential Dimensions/Key Principles
2. Supervisory Methods/Techniques
3. Structure and Process of Supervision
4. Handling Special Supervisory Situations
5. Supervisor Development and Self-Care
6. Research Support for the Supervisory Approach and Future Directions

Suggested Readings

References

Index

About the Authors

Cory F. Newman, PhD, ABPP, is director of the Center for Cognitive Therapy, professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and adjunct faculty at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology, and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1987 and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Cognitive Therapy under the mentorship of Dr. Aaron T. Beck.

Since then, Dr. Newman has maintained a full caseload of clients and has supervised more than 300 postdoctoral fellows, psychiatry residents, predoctoral students, international Beck Scholars, and other mental healthcare practitioners. He has served as a protocol cognitive–behavioral therapist and supervisor on numerous large-scale psychotherapy outcome studies, including the Penn-Vanderbilt-Rush Treatment of Depression Projects and the NIDA Multisite Collaborative Study on Treatments for Cocaine Abuse. While on sabbatical at the University of Colorado at Boulder in fall 2011, Dr. Newman taught the graduate seminar on the fundamentals of cognitive–behavioral supervision.

Dr. Newman is an international lecturer, having presented more than 200 cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) workshops and seminars throughout the U.S., as well as in 18 other countries. He is the lead author of dozens of articles and chapters of CBT for a range of clinical problems and has authored or coauthored six books, including Bipolar Disorder: A Cognitive Therapy Approach and Core Competencies in Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy: Becoming a Highly Effective and Competent Cognitive–Behavioral Therapist.

Danielle A. Kaplan, PhD, is the director of the Predoctoral Psychology Internship at New York University (NYU)-Bellevue Hospital Center, where she is a clinical assistant professor in the NYU School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry. She also coordinates CBT training and supervision for the NYU psychiatry residency.

Dr. Kaplan received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since then, she has practiced CBT in community mental health, hospital-based, and private-practice settings and has taught and supervised CBT at Northwestern University and Yeshiva University's Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. Dr. Kaplan is the author of numerous book chapters and conference presentations on topics, including diversity training, cross-cultural mental health issues, and vicarious traumatization. In addition to her teaching and supervisory responsibilities, she maintains a private psychotherapy practice where she specializes in CBT for depression and anxiety disorders and reproductive and perinatal mental health.

Overall, through Supervision Essentials for Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy, Newman and Kaplan provide professionals with a comprehensive, useful, and approachable set of guidelines for developing their competencies as supervisors. The text is relevant for CBT researchers, clinicians, and teachers no matter the stage of their career, both for trainees beginning to develop CBS skills and seasoned supervisors wishing to stay up to date and fine-tune their approach. Further, learning about supervision techniques through books such as this may help supervisees self-advocate in order to gain more from their own CBS experiences.
—PsycCRITIQUES

• Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy Supervision
  

  This DVD demonstrates an approach to supervision that creates a safe, professionally supportive environment for a supervisee to acquire, practice, and master cognitive behavioral therapy methods, and become more confident as a practitioner.