Supervision & Consulting
My aim as a Supervisor & Consultant is to provide my supervisees & consultees with the support, skills, and resiliency building capacity so that you can do your best work and be fulfilled in your practice. My main goals in providing consultation and supervision are to get to know you and start to build a safe, respectful, collaborative relationship where we can both learn and grow together.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUPERVISION & CONSULTING?
Supervision refers to overseeing and supporting a student’s work before they are licensed. The supervisory relationship is evaluative in nature, which means I will be evaluating your skills as a counsellor, and you will be evaluating my skills as a supervisor.
Consultation is similar to supervision and encourages accountability and continued development for licensed practitioners throughout their careers.
GUIDING VALUES IN SUPERVISION AND CONSULTATION
In the context of supervision and consultation, you can expect me to emulate these values in every interaction—fostering trust, growth, and reflective practice:
Vulnerability — I have learned from my experiences throughout my various careers and am happy to share these experiences with you.
Transparency — I will try to name what I’m noticing about your work with clients, our work in supervision, as well as what I’m thinking and feeling on an ongoing basis. There will be no surprises.
Immediacy — I will try to voice what is happening in the “here and now”.
Authenticity — I like to believe that I present the same true self in all spheres of my life - you can expect to see the “true me” in our time together.
Curiosity — I believe that we are constant evolutions of ourselves – I will remain curious to help identify both of our growing experiences.
Systems perspective — We do not operate in silos but are a culmination of all the systems we operate in – culture, community, family, work, social, economic, gender, etc. This means that we will examine how we are impacted and operate in this world through this lens.
SUPERVISION FRAMEWORK
My supervision framework is built from principles of the Common Factors Discrimination Model of Supervision and the Self-Model of Humanistic Supervision. Here are some key points to know about these models:
Common Factors Discrimination Model of Supervision:
The importance of providing a safe and trusting supervisory relationship to develop positive outcomes.
Responsibility of the supervisor to reflect, teach, support and evaluate.
Supporting the supervisee to build new skills and knowledge is a priority.
Developing confidence and competence is an important outcome of the supervision process.
The Self-Model of Humanistic Supervision: Factors I attempt to integrate from the Self-Model of Humanistic principles into supervision include the following themes (Peters & Rivas, 2018):
Development
Empowerment
Relationships
Social Justice
Wellness
I am committed to the following practices as part of our supervision/consultation:
Responding to the here-and-now
Building mutual trust and respect
Attending to the privilege and responsibility of free will
Supporting exploration and growth
Strength-based practice
Encouraging creativity
Attend to diverse identities and needs
ABOUT YOUR SUPERVISOR / CONSULTANT, HEATHER TOEWS
My greatest passion is supporting people to meet their fullest potential. Offering attachment-based, trauma-informed therapeutic services, my goal is to assist individuals, couples, and families to heal, strengthen, and build resilience to have the best future possible.
I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (#17620) and Registered Social Worker (#17014) and ACS-Candidate. I have worked as a Child and Youth Mental Health Clinician for 5 years and in Private Practice for 7 years. This is my 3rd career, previously working as an Education Assistant for over 4 years and a Social Worker, specializing in child protection and adoption for more than 14 years.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Social Work, and an MA in Counselling Psychology. I have received post-graduate training in various modes of therapy including Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) (Attachment Focused EMDR), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), Gottman Method Level 1, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), and Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) including becoming a Certified Caregiver Workshop facilitator. I have attended numerous courses/workshops focused on developmental trauma, sexual abuse, bereavement, attachment, and more. I have been practicing clinical consultation and supervision in various ways over the past 15 years and have taken a Clinical Supervision Foundations course, taught by Jennifer Hollinshead, MA, RCC-ACS, CCC-S through City U.
Throughout the years, I have specialized in supporting children, youth, families, and individuals with various forms of trauma, especially developmental trauma. I am incredibly indebted to the teachings I have received from my clients, colleagues, and the systems I have worked in, leading me to be client-centred, strength focused, and collaborative.
After 19 years at the Ministry of Children and Family Development, I took the leap into working solely in Private Practice. I have had the pleasure of developing a thriving practice specializing in trauma, adoption, and couples’ work. My breadth of prior experience in the school system, community services, non-profit, and social work lends to a richness of the human experience I see with my clients. I have had the pleasure of speaking at conferences and providing training to various populations, including to parents, caregivers, camp staff, children and youth, men, and workplaces on topics such as self-care, stress and burnout, trauma, adoption, parenting, anxiety and depression, and healthy relationships. Additionally, I have developed a course for parents and caregivers of children who have experienced trauma.
FEES
Consultation/Supervision fees are set at $155 per 50 minutes.
For extended sessions, the fees will increase proportionally to the time allotted.
Please note: practicum/internship counsellors at Heather Toews Counselling get supervision services for free in turn for their provision of services to clients for a reduced fee.
PREPARE YOURSELF
Preparing for Supervision or Consultation: As you consider our time together here are some things you might want to consider for our time together.
A topic or question to explore in supervision – this can range from:
Discussions around observed sessions (i.e. video/audio recordings)
Ideas for treatment plans including which modalities may be a good fit
Resource enquiries
Educational possibilities
Business questions
Career Considerations
Case Consultation
Any cases that you are concerned about clients being at risk or clients who are at risk
Cases where your feeling stuck or confused
Cases with a celebration
Cases where there is confusion about closure
Ethical discussions around cases
Cases you would just like to share
Updates on cases that have been discussed
Additional topics can include an exploration about:
Feeling “stuck” with a client and unsure which direction to go with counselling
Something that went well that you would like to share and celebrate
Any difficult or uncomfortable feelings arising for the counsellor
Any goals that are working on and how that is going in session
A skill you want to use but want to practice it first, during supervision
Any general discussions around theory and how it is playing out in practice during sessions
Cultural identity and relevance (both for counsellor and clients) and what impact it has and/or how it is being attended to during counselling sessions
Many other topics (these are just some possible examples).
THE FEEDBACK PROCESS