Carroll, M., Gilbert, M. (2005). On Being a Supervisee: Creating Learning Partnerships. PSYCHOZ Publications. 157 pages. ISBN: 0-958-5796-7-9.

In the opening paragraph of the Introduction the authors clearly state their reason for writing this book: to ‘empower’ supervisees; ‘supervision is for supervisees, not for supervisors’, a fact not always completely understood by those in supervisory positions.

In defining just what they believe a supervisee to be they encompass a fairly broad field, considering a supervisee to be ‘anyone, of any profession, who brings his/her work experience to another in order to learn from it’. In addition to empowering them this focus on the supervisee, according to the authors, will help them to be honest and open about their work and also involve them actively in creating a collaborative learning relationship.

The book is described as a manual by the authors so the somewhat dry text is unsurprising and acceptable; it is divided into three sections with clearly marked topics to allow it to be used in a non-sequential way.

1. Section One provides an overview of the supervisory relationship and includes what to look for when choosing a supervisor, roles, contracting and preparation.
2. Section Two looks at the developmental stages of learning in supervision: learning how to learn; how to give and receive feedback; realistic self-evaluation; reflection; emotional awareness and dialogue. This section also covers group supervision and how to deal with problems which may arise in the supervision process.
3. Section Three is a twelve part appendix consisting of exercises and frameworks which can be used to assist the supervisee during the process.

Each chapter concludes with a ‘Review and Discussion’ panel, containing a list of questions for the reader to consider in the light of the chapter’s content. There are also Case Examples for the reader to consider how they might deal with the issues raised.The book has a useful reference and further reading list.

The manual format of this book makes it easy for the reader to quickly access specific topics; the layout is clean and clear and at just over 150 pages it does not overwhelm the potential reader. The focus on the supervisee rather than the supervisor also provides for some valuable insights into the supervising role for those who offer supervision.

Editor’s Note: ‘Book Reviews’ is a brand new sub-category of ‘Professional Development’. This section will review popular counselling, psychology and mental health books - comprising both national and international publications. Each review will also be available for direct access under the new ‘Book Reviews’ link category, at the right-side column of this Blog.

Notice to Authors: If you have a suggestion for a book review or would like to have your own published book reviewed by our team, email blog@aipc.net.au and we will provide further information. Your book could be featured in this section and publicized (at no cost) to thousands of industry members!

Thus far, we have looked at some of the simple genogram symbols. As well as the basic family outline, genograms may also incorporate different types of relationships such as family relationships (not just marriage, divorce or separation), emotional relationships (such as hate, harmony, hostile) and social relationships (such as neighbour, co-worker, boss-employee, etc).

Let us take a look at some of the family relationship symbols that may be incorporated:

Engagement

Engagement and Cohabitation

Engagement and Separation

Legal Cohabitation

Commited (long-term) Relationship

Conclusion 

Overall, the genogram is a useful tool for establishing the family history of a client. Because of its short format, it makes it easy to read and easy to identify patterns of behavioural, medical, abuse, cultural, and legal.

However, a cautionary note: although the genogram demonstrates a client’s family history it does not necessarily mean that the client will be impacted by the history. For example, just because a client was physically abused as a child does not mean he or she will be physically abusive.

Editor’s Note: This series was based on the ‘Constructing Genograms’ course from the Counselling Academy. This course focuses on the use of Genograms in counselling practice. The course includes case studies and assessment questions, along with further examples of the complex symbols - including emotional and medical symbols. Click here to register for this course.

We’ve been working on ways to improve your experience here at Counselling Connection, and some progress has already been made on that front. To keep you in the loop of developments, here are some updates:

Getting to Know the Institute

If you would like to know more about the Diploma of Professional Counselling and the Institute, you can now watch it in three great videos: In the first video, Sandra Poletto, CEO, provides a history of the Institute, discusses courses we offer, and provides an insight into the demand for counselling services. Dr Clive Jones, Education Manager and protagonist of our second video, outlines in detail the structure of the Diploma, how the course is delivered, and its industry application. 

Finally, Rob Carrigan (Support Manager) talks about the Institute’s Support Services and the role these services play in helping students make the most of their career options. These videos can be accessed from the Blog’s right-side column, at the ‘Course Information’ link category. For further information about AIPC’s educational programs, you can also download our course prospectuses.

Top Content, Zero Cost

Our latest eBook, AIPC’s Counselling Dilemmas, is now also available for download from this Blog. This 52-page publication showcases 18 professionally-written counselling dilemmas, followed by comments from qualified counsellors, psychologists and mental health professionals. AIPC’s Counselling Dilemmas eBook has been divided into three main categories: Relationship and Family; Ethics, Values and Boundaries; and Situations of Risk.

The eBook is available at our ‘Free Publications’ link category, along with our three previous eBooks and two electronic copies of our quarterly Journal – ‘Professional Counsellor’.

Navigation Matters

We’ve published over 250 posts since early 2007 – and as a result, we have become constantly aware that with all this information, it is sometimes difficult to find specific topics within the Blog. This issue is aggravated when you are looking for post-series where individual posts can be scattered amongst older posts and within different months.

Our new link category, ‘Archives – Post Series’, brings a practical solution to navigation nightmares! This category allows you to directly access the first post of each published series! And there is more to it – each initial post also includes links to all follow-up posts, which makes it simple and easy to read the whole series without having to search page-by-page, post-by-post or month-by-month.

There are currently 16 post-series which can accessed via this express system. This section will continually be updated as we published more posts. Tip: If you are looking for posts which are not from a post-series, you can also use our Search Box or the ‘Archives’ links to find them.

That’ll be it for now. We are continually working to make Counselling Connection an even better learning tool for your personal and professional development. Please leave your comments and suggestions as we’re always considering them in our development schedule.

See you soon!

Editor.

Category: Therapies and Approaches
Author: Kaye Laemmle

Elizabeth came to counselling because she was experiencing intense anger, and was not coping with her life. She complained of failed relationships with her ex-husband, and with another man whom she left her husband to be with.

Elizabeth cannot move on from the anger she feels about her failed relationships and she is feeling isolated from her family and friends. This had an effect on her ability to cope with her work. As a consequence, Elizabeth has sold her successful business.

The Professional Counsellor saw Elizabeth for 5 months and used an eclectic approach with her, including techniques from Cognitive-Behaviour therapy and Solution Focussed therapy.

Full version: Click Here

Once you have collected and assessed the information, let us look at how to start formulating the genogram. The first thing to do is to look at the basic symbols used in the genogram: 

There are many rules that should be followed when developing a genogram. Genopro.com has identified four rules to follow:

The male parent is always to the left of the family and the female parent is always to the right. This is:

In the case of ambiguity, assume a male-female relationship, rather than male-male or female-female relationship. A spouse must always be closer to his/her first partner, then the second partner (if any), third partner, and so on. This is:

The oldest child is always at the left of his family, the youngest child is always at the right of his family. This is:

Also, the genograms can incorporate descriptive information such as age of the individual, year they were born or died, occupation, how they died, etc. This is up to the practitioner as to what they wish to incorporate into the genogram.

Now, we will put together a basic genogram:

In this example, the genogram shows Ken (aged 40) and Julie (aged 36) who are married with two daughters, Ann (aged 16) and Jo (aged 14). Let’s explore another example:

In this case, Jason (aged 34) and Julie (aged 36) are divorced and have one son together (Toby, aged 12). Julie is remarried to John.

In the next post, we will look at some complex symbols used to create genograms.