Clinical Supervision

Practicum, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a course of study for teachers, doctors, nurses, etc., that involves actually working in the area of study and using the knowledge and skills that have been learned in a school.

Students will present cases from their clinical practices and also review case studies provided by the supervising instructor. They will apply the major models of sex therapy for clinical social work, marriage and family therapy or mental health counseling. Students will gain and apply skills to develop a personal model of clinical work and practice preferred styles of therapy. They will discuss the co-evolving dynamics of therapist-client relationships, explore distinctive issues that arise in sex therapy and counseling, and address the contextual variables in practice such as culture, gender, ethnicity, power and economics. Students will become familiar with and demonstrate the ethical, legal and regulatory issues of clinical sexology practice. They will discuss the role of evaluation and assess evaluation tools during supervision. The variety of cases will prepare students for the oral examination.

Clients will be engaged through the student’s private or agency practice, internet marketing, support groups, and word of mouth. All clients will give Informed Consent to being treated by a student under supervision. As a prerequisite for practicum, students will be licensed or license-eligible to provide counseling to clients independently.

The supervision will be in the form of case consultation sessions where students will present written case logs, excluding identifying information that will be discussed with the supervisor and other participating students. The supervision consists of case discussion and review, reading appropriate materials, and the implementation of treatment interventions by the supervisor. The student will see clients in his/her professional office. Supervision will occur either in the student's office or in the supervisor's office.

It will be the student's responsibility to maintain a case log during the course of supervision. The log will contain the date, type of case, client's age, gender, marital/relationship status, DSM-5 codes and the modality of therapy used. The supervisor will keep a similar log.