Clinical Supervision

Indeed, in the field of counselling and psychotherapy, supervisors are considered gatekeepers of the profession essentially, ensuring the standards and supports necessary for the protection of vulnerable people, providing active support of the helping professional and creating an environment in which the supervisee's growth and wellbeing become a key focus of the therapeutic triad (client, supervisee, supervisor). This one-year programme is designed to train experienced practitioners within the health and social care domain to provide supportive, educational and managerial supervisory skills which they can bring to private practice or their workplace setting.

Who is this course for?
This programme is designed to train existing professionals in the health and social care fields (e.g. counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers, youth workers, psychologists, nurses etc.) to supervise the work of other professionals. If you want to help other practitioners to thrive in difficult environments, improve your own skills as a practitioner and contribute to your organisation and/or profession, then this course may be of interest to you.

What are the benefits of doing this course?
Once you graduate, you can immediately apply to IACP or other accreditation bodies for accreditation as a one-to-one supervisor either in Private Practice or in an Organisational setting. Supervision has many roles, which will, to a large degree, be determined by the format or forum within which the supervisor is practising. But in general, our vision of the role can be collectively defined thus: to bring objectivity to what can be a very subjective experience for the supervisee, to bring structure to what at times seems like an unstructured process e.g. counselling/psychotherapy, to bring clarity to what may be unclear and to bring kindness, support, strategies and vision to the inevitable isolation and self-doubt suffered by most health and social care professionals at some stage of their careers.

What will you learn?
Our programme underpins professional clinical supervision practice by employing a training approach which encompasses theories and models of supervision, developing applied supervisory skills and building on your own existing personal and professional knowledge. The programme is designed to harness theoretical and experiential learning in service of contemporary clinical supervision best practice. 25 hours of external supervised clinical supervision practice will be required adding to a further 25 hours built into the programme itself. On completion of the programme, graduates will be able to work in one-to-one as well as group supervision contexts. Participants are required to contract with a clinical supervisor (appropriate to their accrediting body or similar) for a minimum of 7 hours of supervision as they train to become clinical supervisors themselves.

Programme
• Orientation Weekend
• Theories and Skills of Clinical Supervision
• Ethical and Professional Issues in Supervision
• Group Supervision in Theory and Practice
• 25 hours of supervised clinical practice (internal to the programme)

Additional Course Requirements
• 25 hours of external, one-to-one clinical supervision practice in a placement suitable to effective practice (may be one's own private practice or in an existing organisation)
• 7 hours of clinical supervision of the student's supervisory practice
(with a supervisor acceptable to the student's target accrediting body e.g. IACP, IAHIP, BACP etc.).

Eligibility
• Applicants are required to hold a Diploma or Degree (Level 7 or higher) in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, Education, Medicine or equivalent. Applicants who do not hold a Level 7 qualification may be considered on the basis of substantial relevant experience and training. Applications in this category will be considered on a case by case basis and applicants will be required to furnish documentary evidence of experience and training.
• Applicants must be qualified practitioners who have begun supervising other professional practitioners (trainees or experienced) or are about to do so.
• A minimum of three years' post-qualification experience as a practitioner is required.
• Applicants must provide a recommendation from their supervisor.

Additional Requirements
Practitioner should be registered and/or accredited with a body appropriate to their practice and qualifications.

Applicants should check with their current or expected accrediting body if this programme meets the standard of that body for recognition/accreditation as a clinical supervisor (at present, this programme meets the requirements of the IACP for application to accredit as a clinical supervisor).

*Note: Many accrediting bodies require those with supervision qualifications to be already accredited (often for a specific period) before being eligible to apply for supervision accreditation.

Language Requirements
All candidates are required to satisfy the English language requirement. Candidates whose first language is not English and who are presenting qualifications other than the Leaving Certificate may satisfy the requirement through the completion of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) on the basis that they obtain a minimum band score of 6 at the undergraduate level and 6.5 at postgraduate level or an equivalent score of TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or Cambridge, which denotes a very good skill level of English. It should be noted that these are the minimum requirements in English and PCI College may set higher requirements in each case.

Garda Vetting
Students will be requested to participate in Garda Vetting procedures in relation to programme and accreditation requirements.

IT Skills: students require sufficient IT skills to complete the course

Students can expect to be provided with advice and support concerning any learning difficulties that they may encounter. Any diagnosed learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia, must be noted on the application.

Apply online.
Details on course webpage - link below.

One year, 100-hour programme, part-time.

Timetable: Weekends - Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 5.30 pm (approx. 1 weekend per month from October to May).

Career Path
Graduates of the Advanced Diploma Clinical Supervision will be qualified to practice as a professional supervisor, working with individual supervisees in a one-to-one and group contexts in private practice and/or organisational settings.

Career opportunities may include private practice, work with state and voluntary organisations, mental health organisations, social care providers, business and any environment whereby clinical supervision is provided or required in those professions.

This programme can be effectively integrated with any qualification that students have already achieved. Note: qualification is no guarantee of accreditation. Students are advised to verify accreditation eligibility requirements of their target accrediting body before applying to this programme. The course meets the criteria for accreditation with the IACP for qualified counsellors/psychotherapists.