Clinical Supervisors of addictions workers must have:
- Strong supervision skills
- Deep experience in their discipline (such as social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy)
- Experience in addictions work, including evidence based practices
- Consistent, culturally-responsive practice as a clinician and as a supervisor
They also need to be able to:
- Balance clinical focus with administrative focus
- Pay close attention to the quality of services delivered
- Attend to the professional development of the workers they supervise
The following Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) publications are available for free:
- TAP 21A Competencies for Substance Abuse Clinical Supervisors
- TIP 52 Clinical Supervision and Professional Development of the Substance Abuse Counselor
Supervisors should seek training consistent with the work of supervisees. For example:
- If a Clinical Supervisor is newly working with Peer Support or Recovery workers, he or she needs to become familiar with those jobs and the systems with which they work.
- If a supervisee has taken training in a technique or practice, the supervisor should become familiar with that practice or ideally take the same training.
A Master's degree in a clinical field (for example, social work, clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy, medicine, psychiatric nursing, rehabilitation counseling, education-counseling) is usually required.
Generally, supervisors must be licensed to provide supervision in their field and in addiction.
Supervisors can grow to become:
- Program directors
- Trainers
- Consultants