The supervision journal, explained

A supervision journal is your own record of supervision. It holds what you want to raise at the next session, what was discussed, what your supervisor advised, and what you will do before the session after that. It is separate from the logbook's record of supervision, which is the formal record your supervisor signs. The journal is private, and it is where you do your own thinking about supervision between sessions. This page sets out what the logbook already records, why your own record matters, how to keep one well, and how PsychLog's supervision journal works.

What the logbook already records

The Board's Guidelines for the 5+1 internshipdescribe Section C of the logbook, the Record of Supervision. The guidelines say that provisional psychologists “must provide a summary of the content of each supervision session”, and that “The record of supervision must also include supervisor feedback and evaluative comments.” Section C records that supervision happened, when, with whom, in what format and for how long, and it records the summary with your supervisor's feedback. Your supervisor signs it. You must complete at least 80 hours of supervision across the internship, and our guide to the logbook requirements sets out the rest of the numbers.

Section C is a record of each session for the Board and for your supervisor. Your preparation for the session, your questions, and your own view of the advice you were given have no column in it, and the supervision journal is for them.

Why your own record matters

Supervision is where your work is read by someone with the experience to evaluate it. Your supervisor has completed the Board-approved supervisor training, and the Board's Guidelines for supervisorslist among the supervisor competencies “Encouraging the supervisee's self-reflectivity and attention to the development of meta-competence in the supervisee” and “Providing effective feedback to the supervisee”. The journal is your own record of that work. It is where you prepare, so that the session is spent on what matters, and where you keep the feedback, so that it is still there a month later.

The 5+1 guidelines also expect reflection from you. The six-monthly progress review must include your “critical self-reflection on progress”, and simulated learning activities “should be followed by review, reflection, and discussion in relation to the professional competencies”. A journal that records what you raised and what came back over six months is the material for that self-reflection.

The habit continues after the internship. After general registration, the Board's CPD registration standard requires at least 10 hours of peer consultation a year, which it defines as supervision and consultation with peers that “includes a critically reflective focus on the practitioner's own practice”.

How to keep one well

• Keep a running list through the week. Write down what you want to raise at the moment you think of it, after the session that prompted it. A list built over the week is more complete than one written in the ten minutes before supervision.
• Write down what came back, the same day. Record what your supervisor advised, in their words as far as you can, and what you agreed to do. The summary and the feedback that belong in Section C can be written from this.
• Open the next session with what you did. A journal entry that ends with an action gives the next session its starting point, and your supervisor can see the advice being used.
• Section C and the journal hold different things. The logbook needs the summary of the session and your supervisor's feedback. The longer notes, the questions you did not get to, and your own view of the advice belong in the journal.
• Read back over six months. A question you have raised three times is a learning need, and it should be named as one in the progress review.

How PsychLog does it

The supervision journal is one of three private journals in PsychLog, with the reflective journal and the learning journal.

• Take to Supervision. Click the Take to supervision icon on any logbook row and it is added to your For-supervision list at the top of the Supervision journal page. You can also type anything at all into the list. Click an item to read the full entry it points to.
• In the session. Copy one item or the whole list into a supervision note, and tick items off as they are discussed. An item you tick off while saving a note stays linked to that note, so you can see later when you raised something and what came of it.
• Linked to the session. Open the supervision journal from any Section C row and the note is linked to that session, or write a note on its own between sessions.
• Findable. Search across every note, filter by supervisor or by date, or open the calendar view across all three journals. Notes have headings, lists, checklists, tables and links, with screenshots pasted straight in.
• Private to you. The journal and the For-supervision list never appear in reports, sign-off pages or anything your supervisor sees. Section C remains the signed record, and your supervisor signs it from a secure link without needing an account.

The journals are included with every PsychLog subscription, and free-trial accounts can use them too. Start your free trial — 14 days free, no credit card.

Common questions

The Board's documents

The quotations above are from the Board's Guidelines for the 5+1 internship, its Guidelines for supervisors and its Continuing professional development registration standard. Those documents are the authority; if anything here and the Board disagree, the Board is right and we would like to know.