Last Updated on November 6, 2016 by Morris Green

If you’re on the path to becoming a substance abuse counselor, you know all about clinical supervision. And if you don’t, then you better brush up. Textbooks, tests, and class time are only part of the steps to becoming a counselor. Before you’re unleashed to make that meaningful, often life-changing impact, you have to complete clinical supervision. So just what is it, and why is it important?

Substance Abuse Counseling: A Unique Discipline

Substances aren’t standard. In fact, the number of prescription, illicit, and skirting-the-line legal stuff the average person is exposed to on a daily basis is incalculable. From alcohol to a pill to something off the street, the substance abuse counselor specializes in a unique discipline that’s anything but textbook.

Effective clinical supervision is one of the most important parts of any counselor’s professional development and advancement. Not only does it ensure a high-quality standard of patient care, but it also provides the advanced training, education, and support counselors require to truly succeed.

How It Works

In general, the clinical supervisor’s responsibilities include providing task-related and emotional support. According to NAADAC.org, overseen counselors look to their supervisors for clinical direction, professional training, encouragement, and—perhaps most importantly—leadership.

Supervision often includes both individual and group settings. The counselor in training can expect to participate in direct observation, supervised patient or client interactions, and other forms of teaching the supervisory professional or team deems adequate.

Why Clinical Supervision Is Important

Did you know both the counselor and the client benefit from effective clinical supervision? Unlike other medical supervisions, that of substance abuse has no set standard but instead molds to an education of what is proven to generate high-quality care. Instead of a rigid textbook approach, supervision focuses on the real day-to-day of the substance abuse professional. It incorporates proven elements of success like evidence-based treatment plans.

Effective clinical supervision is a cornerstone built atop the schooled foundation that substance abuse counselors lay for continued success. Just as a cornerstone elevates to a new, higher level, so too does clinical supervision elevate the quality and diversity of care the counselor is then able to offer.

Perhaps one of the most critical factors supervision introduces is a tried and true support network. Counselors face a day-to-day regime that puts them at a higher risk of burnout in comparison to other professions. Clinical supervision establishes professional relationships and starts a counselor with a needed and qualified support team. As such, both they and the clients they come in contact with benefit.

Clinical supervision is a fundamental building block for substance abuse counselors who want to succeed. It has the potential to improve patient care and outcomes. It will aid in populating the substance abuse treatment field with better qualified professionals, and this will ultimately contribute to a stronger fight against things like drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Clinical supervision is critical to promote, encourage, and effectively execute so that the needs of both counselor and patient are met now and in the future.

Clinical Supervision at Absolute Advocacy

We would love to work with you and assist you on your journey to becoming a licensed substance abuse professional in North Carolina. The application process is simple: submit your resume for consideration into our Clinical Supervision program and we will contact you for an initial interview. If we determine that you are a good fit for the program, we will contact you to schedule an in-person interview so we can get to know each other.

Are you ready to take the next step in your career as a licensed substance abuse professional? Submit your initial application using the form below