Internship 2009

I am in the midst of supervising students in their internship for their final semester. Amalia was aghast when I told her that I supervise 28 students all over the place in and around KL. She said supervising 6 students were so tiring for her, let alone 28 students. Hei, I am no superwoman. Retirement means I have no other tasks to do - no lectures, no meetings, no reaserch, no papers to write, no assignments to check, no exam papers, etc, etc. I have only supervision - on my time. So it wasn't so bad as it sounds.

But frankly, supervision does sap my energy even though I called the shot. It means I have to visit students practically everyday and my schedule is tight, so tight sometimes I feel I cannot breath. Supervision is hard work. That's why I am not so happy when friends think that now I have retired, supervising students are so easy. What crap! To many people, supervision means must go and see supervisees, conduct discussion a little bit, then it's done. Is that what supervision is? That's an insult to professionalism.

As I see it, there are two options of supervision in counselling field. Option one, supervisor visits student's site, check their records, conduct discussion on issues they face, sign the records and wallah, supervision is done. This may take about 1 hour at the most, sometimes much less. Ethically this is wrong. Spervisees have the right to insist that proper supervision and guidance should be given. Option two, supervisor makes appointment to visit students's site, meet and discuss with site supervisor about student's performance, check their records, sit and observe individual and group sessions (with clients' permission) from beginning to end, conduct discussion about the sessions, giving guidance and rate the performance. This process will require supervisors to be with students at least 4 hours. That means almost one whole day for one student and I have 28 students to be supervised for 2 visits within one semester. Do the maths.

As far as I know, Unimas has a standard mode of supervision according to ethical requirements. Students are provided with comprehensive guidelines of what they should do in their internship, so are the supervisors. So supervising counselling students from Unimas is an intense task. That's why, my energy is sapped every time after the supervision - it's so tiring. So when it is implied that supervision is an easy job, I get pissed off. All Unimas lecturers are doing their supervision according to supervision standard. Appreciation should be given to them that they want their students to graduate with confidence and that they know what they would do in their jobs.

When I was doing my practical in US a long time ago, I remember my supervisor didn't visit me but required me to hand in 3 tape-recorded sessions for her to listen, discuss and evaluate. I wasn't very happy as I learned hardly anything from the feedback she gave me through the tapes. I didn't know what I should say better nor did I know how I should develop the session. I was grateful that my site supervisor was there to guide me and allowed me to sit in her session. That was where I learned most. I didn't want my students to experience the bewilderment that I had experienced. I don't ask for tapes but insist on live sessions where intervention as a mean of demonstration is sometimes necessary, especially when students fail to recognise the main issue presented by client. But this approach presents an ethical dilemma on my part.

I checked on Ethics in Supervision (Welfel, 2005). In ACA Code of Ethics, it says Counselling supervisors monitor client welfare and supervisee clinical performance by regular meeting to review cases, sample of clinical work and live observation. In my case monitoring client's welfare proves rather difficult as I have a big number of students and just cannot afford the time to help the client by taking the case. I have one or two cases where clients of my supervisees insisted to talk to me instead of the student especially when intervention was successful to identify their main concerns. One instance, threat of suicide was used to intimidate the supervisee to disclose my telephone number (it's in the informed consent they signed). We communicated and I suggested that he continued counselling with my supervisee and I will provide consultation. Thank God, nothing dramatic happened. My dilemma, what if threat is executed or something dramatic takes place. In supervision process, shouldn't I provide guidance and intervention so that my supervisee understands what should be done? Should I just keep quiet and tell my supervisee after the session even though I see the session is unproductive and issues are not addressed? What will happen to the client? I am still pondering on the right ethical decision.

On checking the ethical dilemma, Welfel stated '...novice counsellors should be carefully supervised so that errors can be prevented or minimized when they occur.................it is clear supervisors are obliged to monitor supervisee progress and intervene when meaningful deficit occur to protect client welfare and to facilitate supervisee development.' (see page 304). I am quite comfortable with my supervision and have given my best in helping my supervisees. So it is imperative for Unimas and other universities to choose student internship placement to organizations where the site supervisors are licensed and experienced counsellors. This is important in case immediate intervention is needed when supervisors are not within reach.

Anyway, supervision is still a means for me to learn - from my supervisees and clients as well as from the site supervisors. Sometimes I feel so appalled (spelling?) when I heard comment like 'ethic tu cakap je, tak de orang ikut'. If it comes from counsellors, no wonder many counsellors do unethical things and bring the name of counselling to shame. I hope my students remember what I taught them in Ethic class.

To all my interns, good luck in your final supervision. Just do not repeat the mistakes I pointed out to you in the first supervision. My comment: everyone shows potential to be good counsellors, just have confidence and believe in yourself and do your best.