Strengthening Your Practice: The Role of Peer Consultation for Maryland Therapists
As a licensed counselor, social worker, or psychologist, you’ve had to undergo supervision in order to obtain your license. Once the required supervision hours have been met, however, our only requirements for continued growth are through continued education. Fortunately, many licensing Boards allow attendance at peer consultation meetings to count towards the continuing education requirements. In this article, we’ll be talking about peer consultation and the benefits of it, even after you’ve become fully licensed.
What Is Peer Consultation?
Peer consultation is an opportunity for fellow clinicians to come together on a regular basis to work through clinical questions and challenges together.
Benefits of Peer Consultation
1. Brainstorming
More heads are better than one! This is a great chance to get feedback if you are stumped. More often than not, someone else has experienced the same or similar situation and can provide feedback on what was helpful for them. Even if others have not been through the same situation, they still might have great advice. It can be very helpful to look at something through another lens or perspective, whether that means a different case conceptualization, treatment approach, or role (e.g., case manager, prescriber, etc.). This is especially helpful if you have peer clinicians that have specialized experience in a particular clinical area that you do not.
2. Staying Up-to-Date on Best Practices
Another reason why peer consultation is important is that it can be very challenging to keep up with an ever-changing field. Supervision is only required when we are early in our careers where it may be easier to get information on changes and updates, but the benefits of learning and sharing do not have to end there. Who remembers when we all had to learn how to do telehealth in one weekend because of the COVID shut down? We, as a profession, made this gigantic pivot by learning from each other. And we will continue to learn from each other.
3. Recognizing and Addressing Countertransference
Countertransference is going to happen whether we are aware of it or not. It is important to address it for clinical reasons so that you can better serve your client. On a personal level, recognizing countertransference is an opportunity to take better care of yourself and address personal issues that might be making unexpected appearances in session. (Therapists are people, too! A happy, healthy, and rested clinician means you are showing up fully both at work and in your personal life.) The safe and supportive environment of peer consultation is a great setting to have these conversations.
4. Forming Your Own Connections Rather Than Practicing in Isolation
Being a therapist can feel lonely at times. It’s just us and the client in the room. Being in private practice can be even more isolating than other settings because there is no built-in support like with agencies and group practices. On top of that, being a therapist is very different from other professions. You are not alone. Your fellow clinicians are in the trenches with you and understand on a personal level the professional challenges you may be experiencing. Being able to discuss and share the highs and the lows of the profession in a supportive environment is what helps us feel connected. Peer consultation is also an opportunity to network with other fellow clinicians. Need to refer someone out but are not sure what referrals to provide? You will more than likely have some names or ideas if you ask your network!
5. Earn CEs for Attending Peer Consultation
Many licensing Boards will allow counselors and social workers to count peer consultation attendance for category II or category B CEs. As always, it’s important to make sure that you are well-versed in the guidelines from your Board and to make sure that you (or the leader of your peer consultation group) are tracking the necessary information required by your Board to ensure that your peer consultation sessions will qualify for CEs. In the state of Maryland, for example, the Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists as well as the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners allow licensed clinicians to earn category II / B CEs for attending peer consultation when certain criteria are met.
Are you a Maryland-based counselor or social worker who is looking for peer consultation? If you work at a mental health agency or group practice, it’s possible that your employer provides ongoing peer consultation as a benefit to you. If that is not the case, we understand the reasons that you might be interested in seeking out your own supports through peer consultation, given the many benefits it affords.
Are you ready to participate in peer consultation with other Maryland-based providers?
At LifeSpring Counseling Services in Maryland, we offer two different peer consultation groups. We offer an in-house consultation group that is strictly available to the therapists who work at our office as a support and employee benefit. Our 2nd (online) peer consultation group is for fully-licensed counselors and social workers in Maryland who are looking for consistent case consultation, so they can get the support they need and better serve their clients. If that sounds like you, we’d love for you to join us!
Are you a Maryland-based mental health provider who loves doing therapy?
Want to learn more about work life here at LifeSpring Counseling Services?
At LifeSpring Counseling Services, we’ve created a 3-year residency program for new graduates who are newly licensed as LGPCs and LMSWs, so they can continue learning in a supported context while getting their feet wet in their new careers.
At LifeSpring, we also hire fully licensed therapists who are LCPCs or LCSW-Cs who care about their clients and who love doing therapy. Our office isn’t for everyone, however! We hire therapists who want to be a part of a collaborative and community oriented team. At LifeSpring, we really mean it when we say that!
At LifeSpring, we also support therapists in our Greater Baltimore Community!
Therapists who value self-care, organic relationship building, and fun can hang out with us in the Clinician Community Membership, a year-long program where we get to spend time with other local counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurse practitioners.
Fully licensed social workers and counselors who value life-long learning, support, and consistent case consultation can also join our year-long peer consultation program for seasoned therapists.
Are you a Maryland resident looking to start online or in-person therapy?
If you’re a Marylander who knows that counseling is the direction you need to take, the therapists at LifeSpring Counseling Services are here to help. We offer online counseling services for mindfulness, depression, anxiety, trauma, and grief and loss. We also offer Brainspotting as a specialized service, and Brainspotting can be done online, too!
Here’s how you can get started! Online counseling for anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, and grief and loss aren’t the only services offered at our Maryland office.
The counselors and social workers at our Maryland office also offer counseling services for trauma, grief and loss, boundary setting, communication skills, and difficult life transitions. We also offer specialized counseling services including Brainspotting and spiritually-integrated counseling. Because we are located next to several local universities, we also work with college students and international students.
Written by: Melissa Wesner, LCPC
