Students are required to participate in at least 1 continuous hour of live, in-person or videoconference individual or triadic on-site supervision (a maximum of one additional student) each week throughout each field experience. On-site supervision must occur weekly beginning in Week 1 and proceed through Week 10. It is strongly recommended that supervision be scheduled for the same day and time each week.
The Walden-approved site supervisor must perform the weekly supervision in order for the hours to count toward the required supervision hours.
Students are also required to participate in 2 hours of group supervision each week within the field experience courses. Group supervision consists of a scheduled weekly videoconference call with the student’s classmates and faculty supervisor beginning in Week 2 of the term and proceeding through Week 10.
Students are required to attend faculty supervision via both telephone and webcam at the designated time. Attendance of all faculty supervision conference calls is mandatory to satisfactorily complete the field experience course. Students are required to adjust their schedules to accommodate the faculty supervision videoconference.
Important notes:
Students are not able to change sites once the application submission window for the quarter for which the student is applying has closed. Site changes cannot be accommodated after the start of the quarter under any circumstances.
In rare circumstances it may be necessary for students to switch site supervisors or field experience sites after an application deadline. In the event that a site supervisor change is required after the application deadline or during the field experience quarter, the changes must be approved by the director of field experience or designee. Students will be required to submit a rationale for why the site or site supervisor change is warranted, and a determination for approval and timing of the change will be made by the SOC-OFE. The student’s previous site supervisor and new site supervisor, as well as the faculty supervisor, will be informed of the change.
A temporary site supervisor can be approved for up to 2 weeks (see Temporary Supervision Coverage, below).
Students needing short-term supervision coverage (2 weeks or less) at their field site are permitted to identify a replacement supervisor who can meet all the supervision requirements while the Walden-approved site supervisor is absent. The temporary site supervisor must meet all the site supervisor credentials and duties listed in this manual.
Students are required to notify the SOC-OFE (counselingfield@mail.waldenu.edu) as well as their faculty supervisor of the need for the short-term coverage and provide the contact information and credentials for the temporary site supervisor. This notification must occur prior to the start of temporary supervision. Detailed information about procedures surrounding approval of a temporary site supervisor is available on the SOC-OFE website.
If temporary supervision is needed for longer than 2 weeks, a formal site supervisor change will be required.
