The Sentio Supervision Model (SSM)
The Sentio Supervision Model (SSM) proposes a structure to implement DP
into psychotherapy supervision (Levenson, 2024; Vaz & Rousmaniere,
2024). This supervision model was originally developed by Alexandre Vaz
and Tony Rousmaniere at the Sentio Counseling Center and Sentio Marriage
and Family Therapy Program (2024), having since been refined in
collaboration with the Center’s resident supervisors (Stuart, 2024).
The SSM is a 7-step approach that provides an ambitious plan for a
50-minute supervision meeting. Its main aim is the seamless integration
of three supervision-enhancing contributions: the use of outcome
monitoring (Lambert, 2010), the review of therapy recordings (Haggerty
& Hilsenroth, 2011), and the engagement in deliberate practice skills
training. The model offers a very specific structure for what is
expected of the supervisee, and is strategic about where and how to best
ask the therapist to stretch their comfort level with difficult clinical
material. Furthermore, it aims to promote a collaborative dialogue that
helps target the supervisee’s unique “zone of proximal development”,
as related to their ongoing clinical challenges (Vaz & Rousmaniere,
2021, 2022, 2024). The supervision model was thus designed to be in
alignment with K. Anders Erricsson’s proposal that DP training should
constitute “the establishment of individualized behavioral learning
goals, the engagement in repeated behavioral rehearsal of skills, and
provision of expert feedback that encourages and refines further
rehearsal” (Ericsson, 2018, 2003).
Below is a summary of the seven steps in the Sentio Supervision Model: