w w w . on l in e t h e r a p y instit u t e . c o m
Online Supervision– Ethical or a Cop-Out? if both parties follow the same requirement for ethical online practice with clients, such as using encryption, then to some extent this concern can be alleviated. However, it may be more difficult to anonymise a client. Obviously extracts sent to a supervisor should be blinded, with all personal information such as names and email address removed.
with issues such as this should they arise? There aren’t necessarily right or wrong answers, so each contract may be different – a future article here!
There is still the possibility of a client being ‘recognised’ by a supervisor, since more people and detail within the client’s narrative may be evident in an extract, than in a face-to-face account. We can argue that usually the supervisor and the supervisee are not living in the same areas, so it is very unlikely that this will happen, but to ignore the possibility is unethical.
Generally, online supervisors and supervisees are more rigorous about contracts, in my opinion, simply because they have to write to each other about what will go in to it rather than simply talk. Having said that, I can think of one example from my own practice where this isn’t so, and that is where I changed to online supervision from face-to-face with a supervisee. I suspect that I haven’t re-contracted sufficiently clearly for this new medium. That’s one of the spin offs of writing articles – you shine a spotlight on your own practice too!
This brings me to what is perhaps the most vital element of ethical online supervision – a clear contract. What are the boundaries in general, and how will we deal
Face-to-face practitioners have said to me that they think online supervision is a cop-out because you can quickly whizz off an email, and that’s it. Or you can
answer other emails, or make your shopping list during a synchronous session while waiting for the other person to type a response. Of course, that could happen! However, in general terms, most online practitioners tell me that they take more time in writing a supervision email than they take in preparing for their faceto-face supervision session. The amount of energy needed to stay focused in a real time session may be greater than in a face-to-face session. In my experience, online practitioners are aware of this, and do expend that extra energy to remain focused. Another possible ‘cop-out’ may be that online supervision is very hard to equate to face-to-face supervision in terms of time. If your professional body requires you to undertake a certain amount of supervision per month, how on earth do you equate that with online work? Again, face-to-face
T I L T MAGAZ I N E nov e m b e r 2 0 1 0
41