Centering clinical supervisors in counselor education: the FOSTER framework

Purpose Counselors impact well-being and resilience in their communities when they themselves are well and resilient. Counselors begin learning how to prioritize wellness when they are in their academic and pre-licensed training seasons. Therefore, clinical supervisors can directly influence counselor wellness and community wellness. Faculty members can maximize this influence by bolstering and supporting the supervisors working with their students. The purpose of this paper is equip faculty with a framework for supporting clinical supervisors working with counselor education programs. Design/methodology/approach Authors synthesized extant literature on supervision and clinical training with their own experiences as clinical faculty. Findings This study presents a framework to orient and support site supervisors working with counselor education programs, nominally called FOundation building, Supervision Training and Education and Reflective Space (FOSTER). Originality/value In the absence of any comprehensive framework to inform the design of supportive infrastructure for supervisors of master’s-level counselors, this study’s aim is to promote further discussion through presenting the FOSTER framework.