The Contemporary Relational Supervisor

This leading resource is an empirically based, socioculturally attuned, and learner-friendly text on the cutting edge of couple and family therapy supervision.

The revised third edition provides emerging supervisors with the conceptual and pragmatic tools to engage a new wave of therapists, helping them move forward together into a world of highly systemic, relational, developmental, and integrative supervision and clinical practice. Chapters are redesigned to align with the AAMFT Supervision Course, the gold-standard for couple and family therapists. The authors discuss major supervision models and approaches, evaluation, ethical and legal issues, and therapist development. This new edition features literature updates and addresses socioculturally attuned systemic supervision in each chapter. It also includes a new chapter entirely devoted to contextual factors that include attunement to race, gender, sexual orientation, and culture, as well as new coverage of telehealth for therapy and supervision. Filled with discussions and exercises to engage readers throughout, this practical text helps emerging therapists feel grounded in their knowledge, develop their own personal voice, and meet the needs of modern therapy clients.

The book is intended for developing and experienced clinicians and supervisors intent on acquiring up-to-date and forward-looking, systemic, CFT supervisory mastery.

Robert E. Lee brings diverse experience to this text. He began his career in a general medical and surgical hospital, moved to private practice and legal consultation and, at age 50, became a full-time academic. He became clinical director of the MFT program at Michigan State University and, over the next ten years, became a researcher in family science (CFT training; psychometric family assessment tools; state and federally funded family therapy foster care interventions) and a full professor. He then moved to Florida State University as Director of its doctoral program in marriage and family therapy. He is now Professor Emeritus. In the course of this career, Lee was a division president of AAMFT and a member of its ethics committee. He also chaired his state licensing board. During that period, he helped construct and disseminate the National Examination Program in Marital and Family Therapy. He has written many articles about CFT supervision and reviewed others. His first book on supervision, The Eclectic Trainer, was co-edited with Shirley Emerson in 1999. This was followed by The Integrative Family Therapy Supervisor: A Primer, co-authored with Craig Everett, 2004, and translated into Japanese, 2012.

Thorana S. Nelson also brings diverse experience to this text. Trained primarily from a systemic perspective, she did not have to “unlearn” linear therapy or supervision practices. She taught in Purdue University’s COAMFTE-accredited doctoral program and then moved with her husband and cat to Utah, where she co-developed and then directed the COAMFTE-accredited master’s program at Utah State University for 13 years. She continued as a member of the faculty for another six years. Nelson has taught supervision courses for AAMFT and the Utah division of AAMFT. She developed and taught the online 30-hour fundamentals and refresher supervision courses for AAMFT. She was a member of the steering committee for the development of the AAMFT Core Competencies and chaired the task force for a revision of the AAMFT guidelines for the Approved Supervisor designation. She received the AAMFT Training Award in 2009 for her accomplishments in training and supervising relational therapists. In 2023, she was awarded the AAMFT Emeritus Award in recognition of leadership within marriage and family therapy. She served on the AAMFT Board of Directors and various AAMFT Committees at both the central and divisional levels, including as president of the Utah division. She has authored, edited, co-authored, and co-edited articles, chapters, and books on a variety of topics, although those related to training in couple and family therapy, solution-focused brief therapy, and supervision are most dear to her heart. She is now retired in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Professor Emerita of Family Therapy at Utah State University.

Toni S. Zimmerman has served as MFT Program Director (accredited by COAMFTE) at Colorado State University for 35 years. Toni is proud of the unique three on-campus clinics developed and operated by the MFT faculty where the graduate students gain meaningful diverse clinical experiences and community members have access to therapy, trauma assessments, and mentoring. The MFT Program has a long history of commitment to social justice receiving the AAMFT Training Award back in 1999 and many awards and grants since recognizing the impact of the program and centers. Toni is University Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Full Professor, Licensed MFT, and AAMFT Approved Supervisor. Zimmerman has a long and strong publication record primarily in the areas of social justice in the practice of therapy and supervision and therapeutic mentoring for youth who have faced adversity (Campus Connections, which provides mentoring to youth by undergraduate and graduate students). Toni has received multiple awards and honors throughout her career for her teaching, scholarship, community engagement, and commitment to diversity. She has been involved with the Semester at Sea study abroad program since 2007 serving as Dean, faculty, and therapist. Toni has taught AAMFT supervision courses for over ten years and loves meeting colleagues from all over with a common goal of becoming AAMFT Approved Supervisors and providing great training for the next generation of therapists.