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Good Social Work Supervision is the cornerstone of the social work profession—
Social work is a profession of doing. It is fundamentally the application of knowledge and practice with others. This focus is spelled out right in our name, “Social Work.” We are not “Social Studies,” or “Social Readings,” we are practice based and we are social workers.
So, at the core, the function of good social work supervision should be the application of practice. Helping and teaching new social workers how to actually put into place what they know about helping people in the real world. This is our primary focus at SocialWorkSupervisor.com and of the supervisors who are on our site.
What should you look for in a supervisor? Below is a list of superior qualities and roles that supervisors should take that we consider important. Supervisors should offer these services to you in good social work supervision.
A supervisor should offer support and explore with the supervisee how the act of doing social work effects and influences the supervisee.
A supervisor should taylor supervision to you focusing on these areas:
A supervisor should offer clear advice on what perspective to take while leaving reasonable options in most situations
A supervisor will offer ideas and information on what has worked in his or her practice, what makes sense clinically, and will share recourses
Supervisors will respect and treat you as a colleague, assisting you to evolve professionally
Occasionally clients/consumers or perhaps even the sueprvisee, will need advice on how to advocate for him or herself. In these cases the supervisor can offer advice and assistance in navigating the appropriate system
In summary, these are all areas of good social work supervision. There are certainly more but these are the areas we have found that best assists supervisees in growing professionally by enhancing their practices and successfully entering the next level of the profession through licensure and certification. This list is based on the work of Michael Ungar, Phd. For more information about his work and ideas please follow this social work resource link.