Supervising counseling, social work and behavior analysis students

Counseling: practicum and internship (CACREP 2024)

Under the 2024 CACREP standards, counseling students complete a supervised practicum of at least 100 hours over a full academic term of at least eight weeks, with at least 40 hours of direct service to actual clients. After the practicum comes a 600-hour internship in roles and settings relevant to their specialized practice area, with at least 240 hours of direct service. Students receive individual or triadic supervision averaging one hour a week and group supervision averaging an hour and a half a week.

• Site supervisors hold at least a master’s degree, preferably in counseling or a related profession.
• Active certifications or licenses in the state or region where the student is placed.
• At least two years of post-master’s professional experience in the student’s specialized practice area.
• Relevant training for in-person or distance counseling supervision, and in the technology used for supervision.
• Knowledge of the program’s expectations, requirements and evaluation procedures.

Social work: field education (CSWE 2022)

CSWE calls field education the signature pedagogy of social work. Accredited programs provide at least 400 hours of field education for a BSW and at least 900 for an MSW, and many programs ask for more.

• BSW students: a field instructor with a BSW or MSW from a CSWE-accredited program and at least two years of post-degree social work practice.
• MSW students: a field instructor with an MSW from a CSWE-accredited program and at least two years of post-master’s social work practice.
• Practice experience is counted from any point after the degree, as full-time equivalent.
• Where a site has no qualified instructor, the program arranges how the social work perspective is reinforced for the student.
• Each program sets the frequency and format of supervision.

Behavior analysis: supervised fieldwork (BACB)

Candidates for BCBA certification complete 2,000 hours of supervised fieldwork, or 1,500 hours of concentrated supervised fieldwork, within five continuous years. Under the BACB’s current handbook, each supervisory period is one calendar month:

• Fieldwork of 20 to 130 hours a month.
• Supervision of 5% of hours (10% for concentrated), with at least 4 supervisor contacts a month (6 for concentrated) and one observation with a client.
• At least half of supervised hours individual rather than group.
• At least 60% of all fieldwork hours in unrestricted activities, the work a BCBA does after certification.
• Supervisors who are qualified BCBAs and have completed the BACB’s 8-hour supervision training.

BCBA fieldwork from January 1, 2027

The BACB’s 2027 requirements keep the 2,000 and 1,500 hour totals, raise the monthly maximum to 160 hours, set concentrated supervision at 7.5% of hours, and count observations as 60 minutes a month, or 90 minutes for concentrated fieldwork, cumulatively. Fieldwork follows the requirements in force when the candidate applies.

The three fields side by side

Telehealth in these fields

Counseling and social work increasingly include telehealth sessions and remote agency work, and many programs accept them toward the student’s hours. The BACB allows part of fieldwork supervision to take place remotely. HIPAA also includes a provision for supervised mental health training, so students learn from the full range of their supervisor’s work.

How Preceptorate matches you

We match counselors, social workers and behavior analysts with students in their own field, in person or virtually where the program allows it. We complete the program’s forms, schedule the evaluations and pay you per block of hours, at the rate you set within our network’s range.

What supervision looks like week to week

In counseling, the student meets their site supervisor regularly for individual or triadic supervision, alongside the program’s group supervision, and discusses their cases, recordings and growth as a counselor. In social work, field instruction meetings connect the student’s agency work with social work practice and values. In behavior analysis, supervisor contacts each month review the trainee’s cases, data and skills, with at least one observation of the trainee working with a client.

In every field, the supervisor also completes the program’s evaluations and confirms the hours, and Preceptorate’s team schedules the evaluations and completes the program’s forms.

Questions