Reflection as self-care: models for facilitative supervision

ABSTRACT

Clinical supervision is essential for ethical and competent clinical practice and is a component of professional self-care. Reflective supervision can facilitate the development of skills in professional self-care, helping the clinician to critically reflect on their work and mitigate stress. The focus of this article is to provide a rationale for reflective supervision, showcase several models to enhance reflective practice, and highlight the DEAL model, which is a practical model for reflection that can provide the necessary structure in supervision to encourage the depth of reflection required to facilitate professional self-care. The article also gives an example of the DEAL model in action in a supervisory session.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional self-care
• models for supervision
• critical reflection
• reflective supervision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Glassburn

Susan Glassburn (Larimer) is an Assistant Professor at the Indiana University School of Social Work where she teaches in the health care practice area.

Lisa E. McGuire

Lisa E. McGuire is an Associate Faculty at James Madison University and is  the Head of the Social Work Department.

Kathy Lay

Kathy Lay is an Associate Faculty member at Indiana University School of Social Work and is the Director of the MSW Program