Article archive / April 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 4, No. 8. Source pages: 6.
Members of the Marriage and Family Therapy Advisory Committee (MFTAC) moved to have the new supervisory handbook placed on the LPC board’s website, at their March 15 meeting in Baton Rouge. This step confirms a January decision to adopt the language of the handbook, as a main resource for supervisors of interns in marriage and family therapy.
“We just had a big rule change,” said Chair Mark Reynaud. In the marriage and family tradition, just having a course in supervision does not qualify you to be a supervisor,” he told the Times.
The supervisor's handbook outlines the interlocking roles and responsibilities of the three components of the supervisory system: the Board, the supervisor, and the intern therapist. In clarifying these interlocking roles and responsibilities, the MFTAC believes its primary function of protection of the public is better served, Reynaud explained.
“We view supervision as a specific skill, just as other specific therapeutic skills,” he said.
At the March Committee meeting, members discussed the need for additional guidelines for supervisors of therapists. “We found that supervisors were not always aware of the rules,” he told committee members, “and so, we created a handbook.”
The board requires that supervisors take an orientation course, and then retake the course again when they renew to be a supervisor.
Reynaud explained to the Times that the Marriage and Family Therapy tradition places particular emphasis on looking at the social context in which the problems brought into the therapy room are occurring. "The MFT profession has always been multidisciplinary, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors,” he said. “What binds us as a profession is how we view problem formation and resolution. We start by looking at the context in which problems are occurring. That context must be taken into account in any intervention used."
Because of this approach, the supervisory relationship is also viewed from the social systems perspective, he explained. “We are attempting to define the various relationships in the supervisory system,” Reynaud said. “ ‘What is the board’s responsibility to the supervisor and to the therapist?’ ‘What is the supervisor’s responsibility to the board and the intern?’ ‘What are the intern's responsibilities?’ – are some of the questions stemming from this perspective," he said.
All supervisors must currently take a course in supervision for marriage and family therapists, consisting of a 15-hour didactic component and a 15-hour interactive component. Also, supervisors must complete 36 hours of ‘supervision of supervision.’
The MFTAC conducted its first supervisor's orientation course at the Louisiana Association of Marriage and Family Therapy Annual Conference in Baton Rouge this past February.
The new handbook will be available on the LPC Board’s website in the near future.
Chair of the Marriage and Family Therapy Advisory Committee, Mark Reynaud, MA, LPC, LMFT, and Vice Chair Penny Millhollon, MA, LPC, LMFT, look over information at a recent meeting of the advisory committee. Both are also members of the LPC board and Ms. Millhollon is the LPC Board Secretary.
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