Developmental models of supervision start from one observation: a counselor in their first month and a counselor a year from licensure need different things from the same supervisor. This guide is for the licensed clinician who supervises, or is about to start: LPCs and LMHCs taking on associates and residents, LCSWs, psychologists and MFTs. It covers the three families of clinical supervision models (developmental, process and orientation-specific), what the Integrated Developmental Model and Bernard's discrimination model ask you to do in a session, how to choose and combine models, a contract outline and a session plan to copy, evaluation and feedback, the ethics codes, and telesupervision rules in two states.
Many people searching for supervision models are counseling and psychology students preparing for a supervision course, and most of today's top results are course modules and journal chapters. Students will find the model sections useful. The rest is written for the person who carries the responsibility.
Every supervisee and client in this article is invented. Board rules change, and your board's current rules win over anything here.
The three families of clinical supervision models
Supervision models answer different questions, which is why most supervisors end up using more than one. The ACA Code of Ethics expects counselor supervisors to "have knowledge of supervision models" (Section F introduction), and the ACES Best Practices in Clinical Supervision list "models of supervision" and "models of counselor development" as minimum content for supervisor training (12.c).
- Developmental models ask where this supervisee is in their growth and what supervision environment helps them reach the next stage. Examples: Stoltenberg's counselor complexity model (1981), the Loganbill, Hardy and Delworth model (1982), and the Integrated Developmental Model (IDM).
- Process models ask what this moment in supervision needs from you, whatever the therapy orientation. Examples: Bernard's discrimination model and Holloway's systems approach. Some textbooks call these social role or integrative models.
- Orientation-specific models, also called psychotherapy-based models, ask what good work looks like in a particular therapy and teach it the way that therapy works. Examples: cognitive behavioral supervision and psychodynamic supervision.
A fourth approach sits across all three. APA's guidelines for supervision in health service psychology, revised in August 2025, describe competency-based supervision as "a metatheoretical approach" that spells out the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be learned and how they're evaluated, and that "does not preclude other models of supervision" (APA Guidelines for Clinical Supervision).
What the research can tell you is limited. A 2019 systematic review found 19 publications from 15 empirical studies that met its criteria and concluded that supervision research "often lags behind psychotherapy research in general" (Kühne et al., BMC Psychology). A review of CBT supervision found some support for effects on novice therapists' competence and no study showing benefits for clients (Alfonsson et al., Cogn Behav Ther). No model has been shown to beat the others. Choose on fit, and check whether it's working.
Developmental models of supervision
Developmental models describe supervisees moving through recognizable stages, and supervisors changing what they do to match. Cal Stoltenberg's 1981 counselor complexity model described trainees moving through four levels, "from the entry level counselor through the advanced master counselor stage," with a supervision environment suited to each level (Stoltenberg, Journal of Counseling Psychology).
A year later, Loganbill, Hardy and Delworth proposed three stages (stagnation, confusion and integration) that supervisees cycle through on eight issues: competence, emotional awareness, autonomy, theoretical identity, respect for individual differences, purpose and direction, personal motivation and professional ethics. A supervisee can be stuck on one issue and integrated on another, and experienced counselors cycle back when something new unsettles them (Lee, VISTAS 2013, summarizing Loganbill et al., 1982).
Stoltenberg and Ursula Delworth, a coauthor of the 1982 model, presented the Integrated Developmental Model in 1987. Stoltenberg, Brian McNeill and Delworth expanded it in 1998, and Stoltenberg and McNeill revised it again in a later edition. Stoltenberg later called the IDM "the most detailed" of the developmental theories (Stoltenberg, American Psychologist, 2005). It's the one most supervisors mean when they say they supervise developmentally.
The Integrated Developmental Model: structures, domains and levels
The integrated developmental model of supervision rates a supervisee on three structures, within each of eight domains of practice, at one of three levels. The 1998 book defines the domains and structures as markers for assessing growth and relates the supervisory relationship to each level (ERIC, IDM Supervision, 1998). APA's page for McNeill and Stoltenberg's 2016 book describes the model as tracking "therapists' development across all skill levels and theoretical orientations" (APA, Supervision Essentials for the Integrative Developmental Model).
The three structures
- Self-and-other awareness.Where the supervisee's attention goes (on their own performance, on the client, or on both and how they interact) and how aware they are of their own reactions.
- Motivation.Interest, investment and effort: high and anxious early on, swinging in the middle, steady later.
- Autonomy.How much the supervisee depends on you, from wanting to be told what to do to knowing when to ask.
The eight domains
The domain names below come from a University of Oklahoma study of the model (SHAREOK, dissertation abstract) and APA's page for the 2016 book. In practice:
- Intervention skills competence:confidence and skill in carrying out interventions.
- Assessment techniques:using interviews, measures and tests well.
- Interpersonal assessment:using the relationship itself, how the client is with you, as information.
- Client conceptualization:diagnosis and a working understanding of the client's situation and history.
- Individual differences:how culture, identity and personal history shape this client.
- Theoretical orientation:understanding theory and applying it with growing flexibility.
- Treatment plans and goals:organizing the work toward goals that can be checked.
- Professional ethics:applying ethical standards and integrating them with personal values.
A supervisee is rarely at one level everywhere. Someone can be at Level 2 in intervention skills with adults and Level 1 in assessment with their first child client. That's the practical point of the domains: you rate the domain, not the person.
Level 1: new to the work
- What you see:high motivation alongside high anxiety, attention on their own performance ("am I doing this right?"), a wish for rules and the right technique, and heavy reliance on you. APA's book page describes beginners as "highly motivated trainees who remain highly dependent on the supervisor."
- What helps:structure and a predictable session format, teaching and demonstration, role play before hard sessions, positive feedback specific enough to repeat, small doses of challenge, and clear direction on risk.
- Watch for:anxiety that leads a supervisee to hide mistakes, feedback in amounts they can't take in, and a caseload beyond the level. ACES asks supervisors to assign clients appropriate to the supervisee's "experience, developmental level, etc." (7.c.i).
- Usual starting point in the discrimination model:teacher role, intervention focus.
Level 2: the middle stretch
- What you see:motivation that rises and falls with each hard case, a push for autonomy that alternates with dependence, and attention that has swung to the client. Empathy grows, and so does the risk of over-identifying with a client or getting lost in a case. Some supervisees argue with suggestions they would have taken without question a year earlier.
- What helps:less structure and more facilitation, asking before telling, exploring reactions to clients and parallel process, letting the supervisee lead some cases while you keep hold of risk, challenge delivered with tact, and saying out loud that the swings are expected.
- Watch for:power struggles, being pulled into acting as the supervisee's therapist, and a supervisee who seems independent in supervision but stops bringing difficult cases.
- Usual starting point:counselor and consultant roles, conceptualization and personalization foci.
Level 3 and 3i: working independently
- What you see: steady motivation, autonomy with good judgment about when to consult, awareness of their own reactions used as clinical information, and a personal style. APA's description: supervisees "better attuned to individual differences in clients" who "seek more sophisticated clinical responses."
- What helps: collegial, consultative supervision with the supervisee setting the agenda, work on integrating across domains, attention to the domains still at Level 1 or 2, and preparation for supervising others.
- Watch for: assuming Level 3 everywhere, supervision drifting into a friendly chat, and skipping ethics and documentation review because the work looks solid.
- Level 3i (integrated) describes Level 3 functioning across several domains, with a strong sense of personal strengths and weaknesses (HKU, Clinical Supervisor's Corner, Module 2). Supervision at 3i looks like peer consultation.
How to tell what level a supervisee is at
Watch the work, ask, and measure. Recordings show you what self-report leaves out. The Supervisee Levels Questionnaire, Revised was built to assess IDM constructs, and a 1992 validation study found that its scores differed between trainee groups with different amounts of training and experience (McNeill, Stoltenberg and Romans, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice). The 1998 book includes it as an appendix. Reassess at each formal evaluation, domain by domain.
Limits of developmental models
Developmental models tell you how much structure and challenge to give, but not much about which skills to teach. The HKU supervisor module notes they "lack conclusive empirical support" and give limited help with specific assessment, intervention and treatment-planning skills. That's the reason to pair a developmental model with a process model and your orientation's competencies.
Bernard's discrimination model of supervision
Janine Bernard published the discrimination model in 1979 as a way to identify and train supervision skills, the roles in which they're shown, and the choices a supervisor makes while guiding a trainee through practicum (ERIC, Bernard 1979). The name comes from those choices: the supervisor discriminates between roles and foci, moment to moment.
Three foci
The supervisor assesses the supervisee in three areas (Crunk and Barden, The Professional Counselor, 2017):
- Intervention (called process in the original): what the supervisee observably does in session, the skills and interventions.
- Conceptualization: how the supervisee makes sense of the client's themes and patterns and of what's happening in session.
- Personalization: the supervisee's self-awareness, personal style, and their reactions and countertransference.
Lanning proposed a fourth focus in 1986: professional behaviors, such as how the supervisee handles legal and ethical questions. Many supervisors add it.
Three roles
- Teacher:when the supervisee needs instruction, direct feedback or a demonstration.
- Counselor:when the aim is to increase reflection, exploring the supervisee's internal experience as it relates to the work. This is not therapy for the supervisee. The ACA Code says supervisors "do not provide counseling services to supervisees" and address personal issues for their impact on clients and the work (F.6.c).
- Consultant:a collaborative role, used when the supervisee should think and act more independently and trust their own read of the case.
The ACES Best Practices ask supervisors to describe their role at the start as "teacher, counselor, consultant, mentor, and evaluator" (1.c.ii). The discrimination model leaves the evaluator role implicit; the contract should not.
The nine combinations, with one invented supervisee
Jordan is an invented LPC associate in month 5 of a residency. Client C-14 (invented) has panic attacks and has stopped driving on highways. One example for each role and focus:
- Teacher and intervention: demonstrate how to explain interoceptive exposure, then have Jordan practice the explanation twice.
- Teacher and conceptualization: teach the cycle that keeps panic going and ask Jordan to map C-14's last attack onto it before next supervision.
- Teacher and personalization: name a pattern from the recording (Jordan changes the subject when C-14's anxiety rises) and teach one way to stay with it.
- Counselor and intervention: explore what Jordan felt in the moment before switching topics.
- Counselor and conceptualization: ask how Jordan's own beliefs about anxiety (that it's dangerous, that it should be soothed) shape the formulation.
- Counselor and personalization: explore Jordan's discomfort with a client's visible distress, kept to its effect on the work.
- Consultant and intervention: Jordan proposes two ways to structure the next exposure; you think them through together and Jordan chooses.
- Consultant and conceptualization: compare hypotheses about why the avoidance spread to highways; Jordan decides what to assess next.
- Consultant and personalization: Jordan raises the topic-changing pattern unprompted; you ask what they want to try and how they'll know it worked.
Read down the list and you can see a rough developmental path: at Level 1 Jordan needs the teacher items (1 to 3) most, at Level 2 more of the counselor items (4 to 6), and at Level 3 mostly the consultant items (7 to 9).
What the research supports, and the gap
In Ellis and Dell's 1986 study of supervisors' perceptions, the teacher and counselor roles emerged as distinct, but the consultant role didn't; Crunk and Barden summarize similar findings from other studies and still describe the model as "generally supported by empirical research." The main criticism is that the model says little about the supervisory relationship, which led to extensions such as their Common Factors Discrimination Model. Another extension, the School Counseling Supervision Model, uses a 3 by 3 by 4 matrix that adds school counseling program domains (ERIC, Luke and Bernard 2006).
A habit worth building: after each session, jot down which roles and foci you used. If every entry is teacher and intervention by month 8, you may be holding back a Level 2 supervisee. If most are counselor and personalization, supervision may be drifting toward therapy. Mostly consultant entries with a Level 1 supervisee can leave an anxious beginner without enough direction on risk.
Holloway's systems approach, briefly
Elizabeth Holloway's systems approach (1995) puts the supervisory relationship at the center and surrounds it with the other parts of the system: the contract, the functions and tasks of supervision, and four contextual factors, the supervisor, the trainee, the client and the institution (HKU, Module 2; SAGE, Clinical Supervision: A Systems Approach). The model treats supervision as a "shared interactional phenomenon."
It's most useful when supervision is stuck for reasons outside the two of you: a site that assigns clients the supervisee isn't ready for, a supervisor who is also the employer, a client population new to both of you, or differences in culture and power that nobody has named. The HKU module notes that each part rests on research but the model as a whole hasn't been tested.
Orientation-specific supervision models
Psychotherapy-based models supervise a therapy the way that therapy works. Their strength is modeling: the supervisee experiences the approach while learning it. Their limit, as the HKU module puts it, is that the aims of supervision aren't the same as the aims of therapy, so they need a process or developmental frame alongside.
CBT supervision
Cognitive behavioral supervision borrows the structure of a CBT session, with an agenda and between-session assignments for the supervisee. Cory Newman describes the functional competencies a CBT supervisor builds: conceptualizing cases in terms of maladaptive beliefs and behavior patterns, structuring sessions in an organized and time-effective way, and assigning and reviewing homework, while modeling the work and identifying and remediating problems in the supervisee's performance (Newman, Psychotherapy, 2010).
In practice, CBT supervision often falls short of its own model. Reiser and Milne point to "poor fidelity" in actual CBT supervision, with too little direct observation, too little use of standardized rating of sessions, and too little experiential learning such as role play (Reiser and Milne, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 2013). A single case study from the Beck Initiative reported substantial gains in a community clinician's CBT adherence and competence ratings after intensive training followed by 16 weeks of supervision (Waltman, 2016).
A CBT-style supervision agenda to copy:
Psychodynamic supervision
Psychodynamic supervision treats the relationships in the room, including the one between supervisor and supervisee, as information. Harold Searles wrote in 1955 about "the informational value of the supervisor's emotional experiences" (Searles, Psychiatry), an early account of what is now called parallel process: dynamics from the therapy reappearing in supervision.
Frawley-O'Dea and Sarnat's relational model argues that traditional, mainly didactic supervision has limits for training therapists to work relationally, and works through power and authority, regression, the "teach/treat" question and parallel process as a relational phenomenon (Guilford, The Supervisory Relationship). The teach/treat question is the ethical edge of this model: exploring a supervisee's reactions is supervision, treating their history is therapy. ACES puts the line plainly: identify the personal issue, help the supervisee see its clinical effect, and contribute to a plan for resolution "that does not directly involve the supervisor" (7.d.iii).
Other orientations and competency-based supervision
APA's Clinical Supervision Essentials series has separate volumes for several orientations, including CBT, psychodynamic, existential-humanistic, feminist and integrative supervision. For psychologists, competency-based supervision is the frame APA's guidelines build on: Falender and Shafranske's book describes how to "identify, assess, and track" the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values behind each competency (APA, Supervision Essentials for the Practice of Competency-Based Supervision).
How to choose and combine supervision models
Since no model has been shown to work best, the useful question is what each one does for you. One way to combine them:
- The developmental model sets the dial:how much structure, direction and support this supervisee needs, domain by domain.
- The discrimination model picks the move:which role and focus this moment in the session needs.
- The orientation model supplies the content:what competent CBT, psychodynamic or family work looks like.
- The systems view checks the context:setting, client mix, employer, culture and power.
- The competencies set the target:what the supervisee must be able to do by the end, and how you'll judge it.
Questions to answer before you choose:
- What were you trained in, and what orientation do you work from?
- What is the supervisee's orientation, and do you share it?
- What level is the supervisee in the domains their caseload demands?
- Can you observe their work, through recordings with clients' written consent or live observation?
- What does the board or program require: hours, formats, forms and evaluation schedule?
- What is the setting: your own practice, a group where you're also the employer, an agency, a school?
Common situations:
- A new associate in their first months, same orientation as you:Level 1 environment, mostly teacher role, your orientation's competencies as the content.
- A mid-residency associate pushing back:treat it as Level 2, shift toward counselor and consultant roles, look for parallel process, and renegotiate goals in writing.
- An experienced clinician adding a specialty:Level 1 in the new domains, Level 3 elsewhere. Teach the new skills; consult on the rest.
- A supervisee from a different orientation:use a process model as the frame, ask the supervisee to show you what competence looks like in their model, and consider a consultant from that orientation. ACES expects supervisors to bring in elements of other styles when their preferred style isn't helping the supervisee grow (11.a.xii).
- Group supervision:ACES says time efficiency is not a primary reason to choose it (4.d), and describes moving "from supervision in a group to supervision by the group" as members develop. Set confidentiality ground rules first (10.b.ii).
- You're also the employer:this is Holloway's institution factor. Name the dual role and how evaluation and employment decisions stay separate. Our guide to starting a group practice covers supervising associates you employ.
ACES also asks supervisors to articulate "a personal philosophy of supervision" (12.l). Writing down your models in a few lines, and sharing them in the contract, does that.
A supervision contract outline to copy
The ACES Best Practices ask for a written contract that covers expectations of both people, criteria for evaluation, consequences of underperformance, the tasks, functions and goals of supervision, and ethical and legal considerations (1.a.i). The ACA Code adds informed consent for supervision, policies and "mechanisms for due process appeal," and documentation of issues unique to distance supervision (F.4.a). Use your board's form wherever the board requires one; this outline covers what boards' forms usually don't, starting with your model. Social workers will find a fuller contract with board-specific clauses in our clinical supervision in social work guide.
Why some of these lines are there:
- Backup supervisor.The ACA Code asks supervisors to give supervisees ways to reach them "or, in their absence, alternative on-call supervisors" in a crisis (F.4.b).
- Notice to end.Either person may end supervision "with adequate notice," with reasons discussed and referrals to other supervisors when needed (F.4.d).
- Who sees evaluations.ACES asks supervisors to explain how evaluations may be shared with current and future supervisors (7.a.ii), and to leave the supervisee's personal disclosures out of written evaluations (7.e.v).
- Clients told about supervision.Supervisees tell clients "how the supervision process influences the limits of confidentiality" (ACA F.1.c), and ACES asks that the consent name the supervisor and give their contact details (7.c.ii). Some boards require it in writing: Virginia residents must tell clients in writing that they're under supervision and give the supervisor's name, address and phone number (18VAC115-20-52). Our informed consent template has a supervision line to adapt.
- Fee.ACES allows payment for supervision "as appropriate and permitted by state law" (1.b.v). Some boards limit it, so check yours.
A supervision session structure to copy
ACES asks that sessions be "structured, purposeful, and goal-oriented," and that the supervisor adjust style within and across sessions to the supervisee's developmental level and needs (4.b). A base plan for a one-hour individual session:
How the same hour changes with the supervisee's level:
- Level 1:you set the agenda and the cued segment. More time goes to skill practice (teach, model, practice). Feedback stays on one or two behaviors. You name the action items. Risk gets reviewed client by client every week.
- Level 2:the supervisee sets the agenda. More time goes to the case and to the supervisee's reactions, including parallel process. Ask before telling. The feedback block can carry more challenge. Action items are negotiated.
- Level 3:the supervisee runs the agenda and brings questions, not reports. The case block becomes consultation, and you look for the domains that are still at Level 1 or 2. The supervisee writes the action items. Consider one session a month on how they would supervise someone else.
What to record afterward: ACES lists informed consent, what was discussed, the review method used (a recording, live observation), goals for the supervisee's sessions, and recommendations or directives about client care, plus decisions, problems and remediation as needed (8.a.ii). Keep supervision records separate from client files (8.a.v). The social work guide has a supervision note template and log you can adapt for any license.
Evaluation and feedback in supervision
Evaluation is the hardest part of supervision to do well, and skipping it has consequences: APA's 2025 guidelines note that failing to tell supervisees about their competency development may create potential for ethical complaints.
Formative and summative
- Formative evaluation happens in every session and tells the supervisee how they're progressing (ACES 9.a.i). The ACA Code asks supervisors to "document and provide supervisees with ongoing feedback" (F.6.a).
- Summative evaluation happens at stated intervals, such as every three months, as a written statement of performance (ACES 9.a.i), with "periodic formal evaluative sessions" throughout (ACA F.6.a). Some boards set the schedule: Virginia requires the supervisor of a counseling resident to complete evaluation forms at the end of each three-month period (18VAC115-20-52).
- The plan comes first. ACES asks for the evaluation plan, rating form, timeline, criteria for success and consequences of underperformance in writing before supervision begins (9.b.i).
What to base it on
- Direct observation.ACES asks that feedback and evaluations rest on direct observation such as recordings or live observation, as well as self-report (3.a.v, 9.a.v). APA's guidelines explain why: supervisee self-report is the most common source of data and is limited by memory and self-protective bias, and "the more direct the access" to the work, the more accurate the feedback is likely to be.
- Client outcome data.APA's guidelines recommend client progress monitoring alongside observation, because it signals which clients need closer review.
- A representative sample.Review the range of the supervisee's clients and formats, not only the cases they choose to bring (ACES 9.a.vii).
- Self-evaluation.ACES asks supervisors to require formative and summative self-evaluations (9.c.i).
How to give feedback
- No more than three skills or issues per session (ACES 3.a.i).
- Specific, concrete and descriptive, aimed at behavior that can change (3.b), and about behavior, not personality (11.e.i).
- As close to the session being reviewed as possible (3.a.iii).
- A balance of challenge and support suited to the developmental level (3.a.ii).
- Mindful of power, culture, the supervisee's level, the chance of shame or demoralization, and how much they can take in at once (APA 2025, Domain D).
An evaluation form by domain
This form tracks the IDM's eight domains. Use it alongside your board's or program's form, never instead of it.
Feedback on your supervision
ACES asks supervisors to give supervisees regular chances to give verbal and written feedback on supervision, "including anonymous feedback when possible" (9.a.iii). A structured option is the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory, which measures the supervision relationship with supervisor factors (client focus, rapport, identification) and trainee factors (rapport, client focus) (Efstation, Patton and Kardash, Journal of Counseling Psychology).
Remediation and gatekeeping
When a supervisee isn't progressing, the ACA Code asks supervisors to help them get remedial assistance, to recommend dismissal from training or credentialing processes when they can't provide competent services, and to consult and document those decisions (F.6.b). ACES adds a written remediation plan "that includes clear objectives, requirements, a timeline, and consequences" of meeting it or not (9.d.ii). And supervisors endorse supervisees for licensure only when they believe the supervisee is qualified (F.6.d).
Ethics: ACA Section F, NASW 3.01 and the ACES Best Practices
ACA Code of Ethics, Section F
The 2014 ACA Code is still the current edition: ACA's ethics page says "the 2014 Code of Ethics remains the current version" until a new one is adopted (ACA, ethics). A revised code is expected, so standard numbers may change; our ACA Code of Ethics guide tracks its status. The supervision standards a supervisor relies on most (ACA Code of Ethics, 2014):
- F.1.a:a primary obligation is to "monitor the services provided by supervisees," meeting regularly to review their work.
- F.2.a:supervisors are trained in supervision methods before offering supervision and keep up continuing education in supervision.
- F.2.b:supervisors address multiculturalism and diversity in the supervisory relationship.
- F.3:clear boundaries, no sexual or romantic relationships with current supervisees, and no supervising people with whom you can't remain objective.
- F.4:informed consent and due process, emergency contacts and a backup supervisor, and ending with adequate notice.
- F.5.c:supervisees disclose their status and its effect on confidentiality, and get client permission before using client information in training.
- F.6:ongoing feedback and formal evaluations, gatekeeping and remediation, no counseling for supervisees, and honest endorsements.
NASW Code of Ethics, 3.01
For LCSWs who supervise, standard 3.01 asks for the knowledge and skill to supervise "whether in-person or remotely," and only within your competence; "clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries"; no dual relationships that risk exploiting or harming the supervisee, including on social media; and evaluation that is "fair and respectful" (NASW Code of Ethics, 3.01). Our NASW Code of Ethics guide covers the rest of the Code.
ACES Best Practices in Clinical Supervision (2011)
ACES wrote its Best Practices because members wanted more specific guidance than a code of ethics can give (ACES, Best Practices in Clinical Supervision). Beyond the contract, feedback and evaluation items above, it asks supervisors to:
- Limit the number of supervisees so each gets adequate supervision, at or below accreditation and licensure limits (7.b.ii).
- Seek consultation or supervision of their own supervision (7.b.iii).
- Carry liability insurance covering supervision, as should the supervisee (7.a.viii).
- Avoid direct liability, such as missing scheduled supervision, neglecting important client information the supervisee shares, or assigning clients the supervisee isn't trained for (7.a.ix).
- Treat all supervision as multicultural supervision and raise culture, power and privilege from the first session (6.a).
Liability coverage applies on both sides. Our guides cover insurance for supervisors and therapists and insurance for counseling students and associates, including why associates should hold their own policy.
APA guidelines for psychologists
APA's 2025 revision organizes the guidelines into six domains: supervisor competence, multicultural orientation, the supervisory relationship, teaching and learning strategies, problems of professional competence, and ethical, legal and regulatory considerations (APA Guidelines for Clinical Supervision).
Ethical traps by model
- Developmental:a dependent Level 1 supervisee who agrees with everything is not the same as a competent one. Endorse on evidence (F.6.d).
- Discrimination and psychodynamic:the counselor role and parallel process work can slide into treating the supervisee. Keep to the effect on clients and refer for personal counseling when needed (F.6.c).
- Group formats:confidentiality covers group members as well as clients (ACES 10.b.ii).
- Supervisor as employer:evaluation, pay and employment decisions overlap. Name them in the contract and decide in advance how disagreements are handled.
Telesupervision rules vary by board
The ethics documents set the baseline. The ACA Code asks supervisors using technology to be competent with it and to "take the necessary precautions to protect the confidentiality" of everything transmitted (F.2.c). ACES asks for technology that "clearly approximates face-to-face synchronous contact," lets both people attend to non-verbal behavior, and uses precautions such as passwords and encryption in line with HIPAA (4.a.iv, 4.f). APA's guidelines recommend that supervisors keep up with the law on technology and supervision.
Boards decide what counts toward a license. Two counseling examples, read on the boards' own pages on October 25, 2026:
- Virginia (LPC residents):at least 200 hours of in-person supervision, where "in-person may include the use of secured technology that maintains client confidentiality and provides real-time, visual contact" between supervisor and resident. No more than half of the 200 hours can be group supervision, and the supervisor must hold a license "in the jurisdiction where the supervision is being provided" (18VAC115-20-52).
- New York (LMHC):an average of one hour a week or two hours every other week of face-to-face individual or group supervision, and "face-to face supervision may utilize technology acceptable to the Department, including secure video conferencing to protect confidentiality" (8 NYCRR 79-9.3).
Both accept secure real-time video. Neither section quoted mentions audio-only supervision, so ask before you count phone hours. For social work, the social work supervision guide compares Texas, New York and California, where California counts live video but not the phone.
Questions to ask your board before you supervise by video:
- Does video count as in-person or face-to-face, and is there a cap?
- Does audio only count at all?
- Must I be licensed in the supervisee's state, or only where I practice?
- Does group supervision by video count the same as individual?
- Must the format be written into a plan filed with the board?
Practical rules: use a platform that signs a business associate agreement (our guide to HIPAA compliant telehealth platforms covers what to check), keep cameras on, both work from private rooms, keep client names out of chat, and record the format in each session note. If the supervisee sees clients by telehealth, HHS says health professionals must be "licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located" (HHS, Licensure for behavioral health); our Counseling Compact guide explains who can use a compact privilege.
What an experienced supervisor should check
- The Level 1, 2 and 3 descriptions against Stoltenberg and McNeill's own text, especially the "what helps" and "watch for" lists, which are summaries.
- The nine discrimination model examples: whether each fits its role and focus, and whether the panic case is clinically sound.
- The session plan timings and the level-by-level changes, against how you run supervision in your setting.
- The evaluation form: whether rating by IDM domain fits your board's and program's forms.
- The contract outline against your board's required form, your employer's policies and, for fees, endings and remediation, a lawyer.
- The CBT and psychodynamic summaries, by a supervisor trained in each.
- The state telesupervision rules, which were checked on October 25, 2026 and can change.
How this works in TranqBay
TranqBay is practice software for therapists in private practice: a practice website, online booking, video sessions and session notes in one place. It doesn't run supervision sessions or keep supervision notes, logs or evaluations; keep those where your board and your contract say. Where it fits for a supervisor in private practice is the client side of the work:
- Video sessions with your own clients are end-to-end encrypted, and TranqBay's Business Associate Agreement applies when you accept the Terms, with no separate document to sign (read the BAA).
- Consent before the first session. The form library has ready-made templates you send to a client for a session, including consent to treat and telehealth consent. The client fills them in online and the answers wait with the session. If you practice under supervision yourself, check that the consent wording covers it, as described above.
- Session notes. Notes come in BIRP, DAP, SOAP or GIRP format, or a blank note. Structured formats are part of the advanced note templates, which some plans include.
- Booking your own clients. Clients can book online, you confirm each booking or let clients book straight away, and returning clients book their next session themselves.
If you supervise from your own practice, practice.tranqbay.health shows a practice website template and the booking page your clients would use.
Frequently asked questions about supervision models
What are developmental models of supervision?
Models that describe supervisees moving through stages of growth and ask supervisors to change their approach at each stage. The best known is Stoltenberg and Delworth's Integrated Developmental Model, which rates three structures (self-and-other awareness, motivation, autonomy) across eight domains at Levels 1, 2, 3 and 3i.
What are the levels of the Integrated Developmental Model?
Level 1 supervisees are motivated, anxious and dependent, and need structure. Level 2 supervisees swing between confidence and confusion and between dependence and autonomy, and need less structure and more exploration. Level 3 supervisees work independently and use supervision as consultation. Level 3i means Level 3 across several domains.
What is the discrimination model of supervision?
Janine Bernard's 1979 process model. The supervisor assesses the supervisee in three foci (intervention, conceptualization, personalization) and chooses one of three roles (teacher, counselor, consultant) for each moment, giving nine combinations.
How is the discrimination model different from developmental supervision?
A developmental model describes the supervisee over months and tells you how much structure to give. The discrimination model describes the supervisor's choices within a session. They fit together: the supervisee's level suggests which roles and foci to lead with.
What are the main supervision models in counseling?
Three families: developmental models (the IDM, Loganbill and colleagues), process models (Bernard's discrimination model, Holloway's systems approach) and orientation-specific models (CBT, psychodynamic and others). Competency-based supervision, which APA's guidelines build on, works across all three.
Which supervision model is best?
Research hasn't shown one model to be more effective than another. Systematic reviews describe the evidence on supervision as sparse. Most supervisors combine a developmental model with a process model and their orientation's competencies, and check whether it's working through evaluations and supervisee feedback.
Do I need training to become a clinical supervisor?
The ACA Code says counselors are trained in supervision methods before offering supervision (F.2.a), and many boards set a minimum. Virginia, for example, requires two years of post-licensure clinical experience and a graduate course or at least 20 hours of continuing education in supervision for supervisors of counseling residents. Check your board.
Can I supervise someone with a different theoretical orientation?
Often, yes, if the board allows it and you're competent in what the supervisee does. Say so in the contract, use a process model as the shared frame, and consider a consultant from the supervisee's orientation for model-specific skills.
How often should a supervisor give formal evaluations?
Feedback in every session and a written evaluation at stated intervals. ACES gives every three months as an example, and Virginia requires evaluation forms at the end of each three-month period for counseling residents. Your board or program may set a different schedule.
Can clinical supervision be done by video?
In many states, within limits. Virginia counts secured real-time video as in-person supervision for counseling residents, and New York counts secure video conferencing as face-to-face for mental health counselors. Check your board's rule before you count the hours.
Choose your models and write them down
Pick a developmental model to set the level, a process model to guide each session, and your orientation's competencies as the target. Then put all three in the contract, rate the supervisee by domain at each evaluation, and ask how supervision is going for them.
If you supervise associates in your own practice, or plan to once you're licensed, see how TranqBay works for private practice: look at a practice website template and the booking page your clients would use. If you're deciding whether to join, this page explains how joining TranqBay works.
Sources
Associations 8acesonline.net 1States 5Research 11shareok.org 1us.sagepub.com 1psychology.hku.hk 1Books 1HHS 1988 Lifeline 1
Professional associations8
- 1ACA Code of Ethics (2014), Section F: Supervision, Training, and Teachingcounseling.orghttps://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf
- 2ACA, Ethics resources (2014 Code remains current)counseling.orghttps://www.counseling.org/resources/ethics
- 3NASW Code of Ethics, 3.01 Supervision and Consultationsocialworkers.orghttps://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English/Social-Workers-Ethical-Responsibilities-in-Practice-Settings
- 4APA, Guidelines for Clinical Supervision in Health Service Psychology (revised August 2025)apa.orghttps://www.apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-supervision.pdf
- 5McNeill BW, Stoltenberg CD. Supervision Essentials for the Integrative Developmental Model. APA; 2016apa.orghttps://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317396
- 6Lee TK. Integrating a developmental supervision model with the adaptive supervision in counselor training model. VISTAS 2013counseling.orghttps://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/archived-docs/vistas/integrating-a-developmental-supervision-model-with-the-adaptive-supervision-in-counselor-training-model.pdf?sfvrsn=74c269ea_4
- 7Crunk AE, Barden SM. The Common Factors Discrimination Model: An integrated approach to counselor supervision. The Professional Counselor. 2017;7(1):62-75tpcjournal.nbcc.orghttps://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/the-common-factors-discrimination-model-an-integrated-approach-to-counselor-supervision/
- 8Falender CA, Shafranske EP. Supervision Essentials for the Practice of Competency-Based Supervision. APA; 2016apa.orghttps://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317427
State boards and laws5
- 10Virginia, 18VAC115-20-52: Resident license and residency requirements (professional counselors)law.lis.virginia.govhttps://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title18/agency115/chapter20/section52/
- 11New York, 8 NYCRR Subpart 79-9: Mental health counseling (79-9.3 experience requirement)op.nysed.govhttps://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/mental-health-counselors/laws-rules-regulations/subpart-799
- 12Bernard JM. Supervisor training: A discrimination model. Counselor Education and Supervision. 1979;19(1):60-68 (ERIC record)eric.ed.govhttps://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ209167
- 13Stoltenberg CD, McNeill B, Delworth U. IDM Supervision: An Integrated Developmental Model for Supervising Counselors and Therapists. Jossey-Bass; 1998 (ERIC record)eric.ed.govhttps://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED424484
- 14Luke M, Bernard JM. The School Counseling Supervision Model: An extension of the Discrimination Model. Counselor Education and Supervision. 2006 (ERIC record)eric.ed.govhttps://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ741965
Research11
- 15Stoltenberg C. Approaching supervision from a developmental perspective: The counselor complexity model. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1981;28(1):59-65doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.28.1.59
- 16Loganbill C, Hardy E, Delworth U. Supervision: A conceptual model. The Counseling Psychologist. 1982;10(1):3-42doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1177/0011000082101002
- 17McNeill BW, Stoltenberg CD, Romans JS. The Integrated Developmental Model of supervision: Scale development and validation procedures. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 1992;23(6):504-508doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.23.6.504
- 18Stoltenberg CD. Enhancing professional competence through developmental approaches to supervision. American Psychologist. 2005;60(8):857-864 (PubMed)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16351427/
- 19Newman CF. Competency in conducting cognitive-behavioral therapy: Foundational, functional, and supervisory aspects. Psychotherapy. 2010;47(1):12-19doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1037/a0018849
- 20Reiser RP, Milne DL. Cognitive behavioral therapy supervision in a university-based training clinic. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. 2013;27(1):30-41doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.27.1.30
- 21Waltman SH. Model-consistent cognitive behavioral therapy supervision: A case study. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. 2016;30(2):120-130 (PubMed)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32755911/
- 22Searles HF. The informational value of the supervisor's emotional experiences. Psychiatry. 1955;18(2):135-146doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1955.11023001
- 23Efstation JF, Patton MJ, Kardash CM. Measuring the working alliance in counselor supervision. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1990;37(3):322-329doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.37.3.322
- 24Kühne F, Maas J, Wiesenthal S, Weck F. Empirical research in clinical supervision: A systematic review. BMC Psychology. 2019;7:54doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-019-0327-7
- 25Alfonsson S, et al. The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: A systematic review. Cogn Behav Ther. 2018;47(3):206-228doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2017.1369559