Milne (2007) defined clinical supervision as: "The formal provision, by approved supervisors, of a relationship-based education and training that is work-focused and which manages, supports, develops and evaluates the work of colleague/s".
Supervision's objectives are "normative" (e.g. quality control), "restorative" (e.g. encourage emotional processing) and "formative" (e.g. maintaining and facilitating supervisees' competence, capability and general effectiveness).
[4][5][6] Clinical supervision has some overlap with managerial activities, mentorship, and preceptorship, though all of these end or become less direct as staff develop into senior and autonomous roles.
The Brief Therapy practice[25] teaches a solution focused approach based on the work of Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg which uses the concepts of respectful curiosity, the preferred future, recognition of strengths and resources, and the use of scaling to assist the practitioner to progress (described in [26]).
Waskett has described teaching solution-focused supervision skills to a variety of professionals[27] Evidence-based CBT supervision is a distinctive and recent model that is based on cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), enhanced by relevant theories (e.g. experiential learning theory), expert consensus statements, and on applied research findings (Milne & Reiser, 2017).
But discussion should properly be combined with other CBT techniques, including Socratic questioning, guided discovery, educational role-play, behavioural rehearsal, and corrective feedback.
Another distinctive aspect is a focus on evidence-based principles and methods, including the use of reliable instruments for feedback and evaluation, in relation to both therapy and supervision.
Examples of the use of relevant theories, expert consensus statements and research, together with six formally-developed supervision guidelines (illustrated through video clips), can be found in Milne & Reiser (2017).