LRC&C

Thank you for selecting me as your clinical supervisor. I look forward to our work together. This document should answer your questions about my qualifications, but feel free to ask me any questions you have and I will gladly answer them or provide you with other supporting documents as needed.

Degrees and Credentials

• MS Professional Counseling, Monmouth University
• MS Exercise and Sport Studies, Smith College
• AB Psychology, Princeton University

• Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) – NY State #004710
• Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) – Massachusetts #12109
• National Certified Counselor (NCC) – NBCC #246408
• Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC) – NBCC #246408
• Board Certified-TeleMental Health Provider – CCE #BC-TMH250
• Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS) - CCE #ACS2038
• Certified HeartMath Practitioner - HMI0343

Areas of Competence

• Adolescent and adult population
• LGBTQ population
• Mind, body, emotion integration
• Mindfulness techniques
• Anxiety disorders
• Stress and heart rate variability biofeedback
• Athlete and sport psychology
• Transition issues
• Career counseling

Supervision Training and Experience

I have completed a 30-hour training course on clinical supervision from The University of North Carolina Greensboro and continue to gain continuing education on the topic. I am a Board Certified-TeleMental Health Provider, which gives me specialized training in proper ethics and technologies for distance supervision and counseling. I have experience supervising graduate students, limited permit MHC, LMHC, and LMSW while serving as the Clinic Director at a clinic in Manhattan. I was involved in peer supervision with other fully licensed colleagues at a university and hospital from previous employment.

Approach to Supervision

Supervision is a place to develop the necessary skills and practice of counseling to protect one’s clients and become a competent practitioner. My approach to supervision follows the Developmental Model, which adjusts for and to the level of expertise of the supervisee. As a clinical supervisor, I am here to help you learn what you do know and what you do not yet know in a safe and supportive environment that allows you, the supervisee, to be accountable while learning. The needs of the supervisee will change substantially over time and I aim to support and foster that growth while assuring client and therapist safety. I use a reflective model of supervision whether in individual supervision, group supervision, or tape review. The goals of clinical supervision are:

• To develop competence in standard mental health assessment and treatment modalities while encouraging learning and growing within the field.
• To gain a thorough understanding of theoretical orientations and their practical application.
• To develop clinical skills in assessment, treatment planning, implementation and documentation.
• To oversee the development of ethical decision making in the clinical setting.
• To model and promote appropriate ways to work with issues of culture, gender, sexual identity and preference, religious affiliation or other difference in the counseling setting.
• To develop the counselor’s self awareness and ability to discern what are his/her issues to sort through in clinical supervision and what are the client’s issues so as to avoid counter transference in therapy. While clinical supervision is not therapy, in these instances it may brush up against that boundary as we discern which issues need to be discussed in supervision and which would best be addressed within the supervisee’s own therapy.
• To assist the supervisee in reducing their own professional performance anxiety while increasing their professional identity and areas of expertise.

Evaluation Procedure

I use several tools in establishing goals and evaluation of these goals in supervision:

• Mutual discussion of strengths and weaknesses over time
• Self-assessment tools
• University provided therapist evaluations
• Therapist Evaluation Checklist by Hall-Marley (2000)

Using these tools we will establish mutually agreed upon goals that we will review during supervision sessions and/or as required by your school or supervision goals. I will keep brief session notes and provide written evaluations for you when supervision is finished or as needed.

Confidentiality

All information shared with me in the context of clinical supervision is held in strict confidence with the following exceptions:

• If the supervisee exhibits signs of impairment
• If the supervisee exhibits behaviors that are unethical and/or dangerous to the client
• If I, as a supervisor, am court ordered to testify about the nature of a supervision relationship or of a client of the supervisee
• If a client’s welfare is in danger and it is deemed the supervisee is unable to assist the client adequately
• If a child, elderly person, or dependent person is being abused
• If I, as a supervisor, seek supervision from another licensed mental health professional

Supervisees must inform their clients that they are obtaining clinical supervision and the bounds of confidentiality within the supervision relationship.

Fees

Emergency Contact Information

I respond fastest to email at lauren@laurenrigney.com. Please put a phone number where you can immediately be reached in the body of the email and I will call you back as soon as possible. Do not put the full name of a client in the email. You may also call my business cell at 646-481-7577.

Code of Ethics

As your supervisor, I adhere to the ACS Code of Ethics as well as the ACA Code of Ethics. You are responsible for following the Code of Ethics applicable to your credentialing body. As a counselor I also follow the NBCC’s Code of Ethics and The Practice of Internet Counseling.