The Contemporary Relational Supervisor

The Contemporary Relational Supervisor is an empirically based, academically sophisticated, and learner-friendly book on the cutting edge of couple and family therapy supervision. Appropriate for master’s and doctoral level students, as well as experienced clinicians who wish to learn about supervision, it emphasizes system and relational thinking and intervention, while privileging the diversity of training system members, their realities, experiences, and interpretations of life. The authors are attuned throughout the text to how and where clinical training and services are provided, and to whom, and provide detailed literature reviews for readers. These factors assist their discussion of the socio-historic development of the AAMFT supervision designation, and the fundamentals, contexts, philosophy, relationships, and pragmatics of CFT supervision. They also discuss major models and approaches, evaluation, ethical and legal issues, and therapist development. Perhaps most important is their presentation of methods that help tailor and extend supervision practices to meet the clinical, institutional, and economic realities that CF therapists navigate. Readers are engaged by the discussions and exercises at the end of each chapter, which help them to feel more grounded in a topic, to have their own voices heard, and to be granted insight through experiencing multiple realities. This valuable reference prepares the next wave of cutting-edge CFT supervisors–those who are knowledgeable, skilled, and realistically confident.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Fred Piercy Part 1: Understanding the Supervisory Process: An Overview 1. Basic Ingredients in the Supervisory Process 2. Supervisory Relationships, Roles, and Goals 3. Getting Started: Readiness and Procedures 4. Screening, Contracts, Core Competencies, and Evaluation Part 2: Relational Supervision Practices 5. A Closer Look at Supervision Formats 6. Approaches to Supervision 7. Effective Supervision According to the Literature 8. Supervision Based on Core Competencies 9. Tools: Supervising Manual-Based Models Part 3: Contextual Considerations 10. Contextual Aspects of Supervision: Setting, Culture, and Self 11. Legal Aspects of Relational Supervision 12. Ethical Considerations in Relational Supervision 13. Self-of-the-Therapist, Self-of-the-Supervisor Part 4: Troubleshooting and Writing a Personal Philosophy of Supervision Paper 14. Troubleshooting and Pragmatics in the Relational Training System 15. Developing Your Personal Philosophy of Supervision Paper

About the Author :
Robert E. Lee, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Florida State University. Thorana S. Nelson, PhD, Professor Emerita (semi-retired), Utah State University.

Review :
“Robert Lee and Thorana Nelson are the go-to people I trust to tell me about relational supervision... [They] did not disappoint me with this book, in which they provide a soup-to-nuts overview of contemporary relational supervision…. As I read this book, I took two sets of notes. One was to help me write this foreword. The more extensive set, though, was on how I might use the content of the book to structure a supervision course of my own….The authors made my job easy.” - From the Foreword, Fred P. Piercy, PhD “At last, the field of relational therapy has a wonderful authored text about supervision. Everyone agrees that supervision is essential but there are very few good guides as to this territory. Robert E. Lee and Thorana Nelson present a comprehensive vision of supervision in which they examine such essential topics as the key aspects of supervisory relationships, contracts, core competencies, formats, and approaches to supervision. Considerations of supervision in evidence-based models and of the cultural context for supervision are especially timely. This book should be a core text for AAMFT approved MFT programs and other programs that have a relational focus as well as a resource for every supervisor and supervisee.” - Jay Lebow, PhD, Clinical Professor, The Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University   “Wondering if you should purchase this book?  Review the table of contents and then try not to! Rooted in the supervision literature and brought to life by authors who each have decades of experience, this practical, well-written book will advance the skill level of any clinical supervisor.” - Bruce Kuehl, PhD, Director, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, University of Wisconsin-Stout; Supervisor; Author of the Pioneers of Family Therapy publications for the AAMFT  “Lee and Nelson have done a real service to the profession. They provide supervisors of all experience levels a practical, comprehensive overview of the state of the art of systemic psychotherapy supervision.” - Wayne Perry, DMin, PhD, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, Clinical Programs Director, Amridge University   “The Contemporary Relational Supervisor makes a long-awaited contribution to the field of couple and family supervision. No matter where you are on your supervisory journey, you will find the current information and practical application exercises you need to figure out and implement your unique approach to relational, systemic supervision.” - Dale G. Blumen, MS, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor; Supervision Course Instructor “While the literature on the supervision of couple and family therapy remains modest, it has expanded rapidly in the last decade to the point where supervisors are challenged to stay abreast of it. It is refreshing, therefore, for a book like The Contemporary Relational Supervisor to become available to supervisors because this book captures the primary ingredients of supervision under one cover and offers the integrated perspective of two highly experienced and knowledgeable authors. The book is comprehensive and meticulously referenced and thus serves both as a reference book and a guide to supervisory practice.” - Douglas C. Breunlin, MSMFT Program Director and Clinical Professor, The Family Institute at Northwestern University; Co-Editor, The Handbook of Family Therapy and Supervision "Lee and Nelson have written a text that has just about everything you could want, and more, from a book about supervision. I say that purposefully—it is a book about supervision, not a book that teaches you how to supervise. The authors are clear in their purpose for the book, “… we do not attempt to teach people how to supervise; rather we seek to present multiple ideas about approaches to supervision so that learners can identify, clarify, and articulate their own perspectives and positions” (Lee & Nelson, 2013, pp. 83). While the authors state that they did not write the book to teach people how to supervise, it is clear that this book should be considered a core text for any couple and family therapy (CFT) supervision course." - Christopher K. Belous, PhD, LMFT, Mercer University Atlanta, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy