Directed Learning Activities in Providing Clinical Supervision
Registrants who provide supervision are encouraged to develop their own competence in providing clinical supervision in order to provide supervisees with the richest possible learning experience.
Registrants are encouraged to use the clinical supervisor criteria as baseline guideposts in cultivating their practice as a supervisor.
To improve their range and competence in providing effective clinical supervision, registrants should draw from a variety of activities that comprise directed learning (i.e. course work, supervised practice as a clinical supervisor, individual/peer/group learning, and independent study that includes structured readings) as a way to become exposed to and incorporate emerging best practices.
Beginning in April 2026, new supervisors are expected to have taken a 30-hour course on providing clinical supervision, and all supervisors are strongly recommended to complete such a course if they haven’t already. This guideline explains what the supervision course should cover. The guideline may be of interest to supervisors, course providers, and anyone else interested in clinical supervision.
Clinical supervision is a key aspect in the establishment of competent professionals. You have a responsibility to provide competent clinical supervision which includes assessing the knowledge, skill and judgment of supervisees, evaluating their needs and responding to those needs with appropriate and timely clinical supervision, which may include feedback and consultation, among other things, as negotiated between you and the supervisee.
Direct Client Contact (DCC) Hours
Direct client contact is any activity in which the client and the therapist are directly and formally engaged in the psychotherapeutic process. Ordinarily, this process occurs face-to-face, but other forms of direct contact, for example, using telephone, video call, or even email (with appropriate considerations for privacy and confidentiality) are relevant. The client may be an individual, couple, family or group.
Also included in direct client contact are:
- interviewing for intake, as long as this activity is clinical in nature and then used to determine the nature and course of the therapy;
- interviewing, administering a test or conducting a formal assessment as part of a clinical interaction with the client; and
- facilitating or actively co-facilitating therapeutic sessions.
The following are not considered direct client contact:
- observing therapy without actively participating or providing follow-up to the client immediately after the observed session;
- record-keeping;
- administrative activities, including report-writing;
- conducting a psychometric assessment that primarily involves administering, scoring and report-writing, with little or no clinical interaction with the client; and
- providing or receiving clinical or other forms of supervision.
Note: A standard 45 or 50 minute session qualifies as one hour of DCC.