A Solution-Focused Approach to Mental Health Supervision

In recent years, an increased number of child and family services agencies have undertaken extensive training programs for their staff in brief solution-focused therapy. As mental health workers begin to apply a solution-focused approach to their work, there is a growing need for current supervisory practices to incorporate these new approaches so that they are consistent with the therapy models being employed. Mental health supervision, however, has been an administrative practice primarily focused on mental health worker development and has lacked the client-focused approach necessary to adapt solution-focused methods. This paper introduces solution-focused mental health supervision as a new vision for supervisory practices that will have the flexibility to facilitate mental health worker development along with a more direct therapeutic role. It is suggested that when a solution-focused supervisory process ensures the definition of supervisory goals in terms of concrete client conceptualizations of goals and solutions, client outcomes significantly improve. Data from a small exploratory study in a children's mental health agency are included here as preliminary support for this theoretical position. These theoretical concepts have been used to develop practical guidelines for the implementation of solution-focused supervision.