Workshop Description:

Clinical supervisors of mental health practitioners (MHP) provide critical support to supervisees through feedback on clinical skills, professional dispositions, and personal growth. An important responsibility of clinical supervisors and clinical faculty is serving as the gatekeeper, or steward, of the profession.

The Board of Counsellors (Malaysia; 2016) have described a number of ‘gatekeeping’-related concerns in the Code of Ethics (e.g., C.2.a, C.2.d, C.2.g, F.3.a, F.4.a, F.5.a, and F.5.b. MHP or MHP-in-training who do not demonstrate competence, appropriate professional disposition, or self-monitoring for impairment may ultimately not be well suited to the counseling profession. However, how-to engage in gatekeeping in supervision can be challenging. 

In this workshop, we will review the gatekeeping responsibility of supervisors and faculty, discuss how-to identify critical incidents that require gatekeeping intervention, and describe best practices in developing supportive gatekeeping practices.

The workshop is designed for mental health practitioners, supervisors, and counseling and therapy educators who have prior supervision training. Supervisors in school counseling are welcome as well.