The Practice of Therapy Podcast with Gordon Brewer: Rebecca Toner | Supervision And Seeking Support In Your Private Practice

Rebecca Toner | Supervision And Seeking Support In Your Private Practice | TPOT 144

Sep 7, 2020

In this episode, Rebecca Toner joins to speak about supervision and seeking support for your private practice. She explains exactly how a supervisor can help you with your clinical journey. Plus, Rebecca reveals the most significant obstacles that clinicians face at the beginning of their career and some ways to overcome those common challenges. Stay tuned as we talk about how you can find a niche and the ways to navigate imposture syndrome.

Meet Rebecca Toner

Rebecca Toner, MA, LPC is a group private practice owner, clinical supervisor, EMDR consultant-in-training, and host of the Supportive SuperVision Podcast. She specializes in trauma work and combines both her clinical practice of EMDR and her clinical supervision/consultation practice with an Internal Family Systems model. She's a multi-passionate entrepreneur whose mission is to help heal as many lives as possible through direct clinical practice, supervision, and EMDR consulting.

Connecting With Clinicians

It’s terrific for clinicians to be connecting as long as it’s authentic. Supervision is a way to develop other clinicians. You can work on a few goals together and help drive their career. Rebecca does a lot of trauma-informed supervision. She helps her clinicians dig deep and compartmentalize.

Learn How To Be Genuine

Rebecca notices that clinicians focus on doing their work correctly and precisely by the book. This method will strip the human element. Instead of staying in the moment, clinicians are second-guessing themselves. Plus, clinicians will work on becoming more like their supervisor rather than becoming more like themselves. It’s essential to develop your own style when doing clinical work. The number one predictor of the efficacy of therapy is the relationship between the therapist and the client.

Advice For Those Who Are Getting Started

Rebecca says to invest in your own supervision and consultation. A consultation will be a one-time session where you ask a couple of questions. Supervision is a paid ongoing relationship. If you’re a young clinician, then you are probably getting administrative supervision. However, you can pay for someone who will provide clinical supervision. That new perspective will help assist your clients. This person will also have the clinical process at the forefront of their mind.

Be part of an online therapist group, if possible. Facebook groups are great for exposing yourself to people with specialties and niches. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Pay the person that has your niche for their time and ask how they got to where they are. Build your business and your confidence while also building your clinical skills.

Getting Unstuck as a Clinician

Clinicians will get stuck with their confidence. Sometimes, they are not sure which diagnosis is the right choice for their client. A clinician will overthink their gut feelings. Plus, people are made to believe that they are dependent on their agency jobs. That’s not the case! It’s scary to give up the stability of an agency job and move out on your own. However, every therapist in private practice has wrestled with these thoughts.

Private practice does not need to be zero to one-hundred. You can build your private practice during nights and weekends. Then, start thinking about moving from full-time to part-time agency work to give yourself more time when transitioning to private practice. It’s vital to form a niche and a specialty. That will help when you make a move to private practice.

Finding a Niche and Overcoming Imposture Syndrome

What are you naturally doing as an interest? If you’re interested in clients with OCD and ADHD, then work on getting super confident in that area. It’s also essential to go to the trainings and validate that you know what you’re doing. People can get caught up in imposter syndrome because they don’t recognize what they do know. It’s important to remember that you have gone through trainings and learned from graduate school and internships. It would help if you didn’t discount these things.

Being transparent… Some of the resources below use affiliate links which simply means we receive a commission if you purchase using the links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for using the links!

Rebecca’s Resources

Supervision/Consultation Website

Counseling Practice Website

Supportive SuperVision Podcast

Instagram

Rebecca@SupportiveSupervision.com