Didactic Supervision

Guidance for training providers on what would qualify as “didactic supervision” as provided for in sub-clause 7.1.2 of Bye-Law 11

Background:

This sub-clause, with the agreement of ICP/EAP, was a late addition to clause 7 of Bye-Law 11 to meet the EAP requirement that at least 150 hours of supervision be received over phases 1 and 2 of psychotherapy training.

Intention:

The intention of this sub-clause is to cater for specific elements of the qualifying psychotherapy training which, although not supervision in the formal sense catered for in all the other sub-clauses of clause 7, would intentionally be, in the view of the course trainers, of supplementary supervisory value to those of their students already approved to engage in supervised clinical practice within the training course. When verified as such by the training course, IAHIP would count such hours, subject to a maximum of 50, as “supervision” for the purpose of meeting the requirements of clause 7 rather than counting them under any of the other training elements of the course.

Consequences:

As a result, any ‘didactic supervision’ is additional to, and therefore distinguishable from, the required supervision of a student’s client work undertaken during Phase 1 training. It does not qualify to be treated as counting towards the 1:4 ratio that is required between a student’s hours of supervision and hours of client work. Furthermore, ‘didactic supervision’ is confined to the support of students already approved to engage in supervised client work; it does not apply to peer practice sessions prior to or in preparation for starting client work.

Didactic supervision cannot be provided to an individual trainee or a group of trainees by a facilitator/trainer who also leads a self-experience group containing the same individual/s, as ICP does not accept such overlap of roles.

What is meant by didactic supervision?

As the term suggests, didactic supervision is intended to include elements of theoretical learning and supervision within the training curriculum that have a direct bearing and an intended beneficial influence on the supervised client work of the students. This might include clinical seminars, or other training occasions, at which particular themes are addressed and at which the students are enabled to explore and present their own casework in relation to the theme under consideration. The training activity should have a clearly identifiable supervisory aspect in relation to the students’ direct experience in clinical practice. There should be a clear focus on developing the capacity to accurately link theory and practice.

Responsibility:

It is the responsibility of the training provider to decide what part(s), if any, of their training content qualifies as didactic supervision and to be willing to verify it as such, where appropriate, for graduates of theirs seeking IAHIP accreditation. Obviously, any hours of training classified as didactic supervision in an application for accreditation must not be included as well elsewhere in the application under any of the Theory and Group Learning headings set out in clause 4 of the Bye-Law.