Associate Professor George Davy Vera, PhD

Barry University, Florida (USA)

Counselling Supervision is well-developed in the US and other countries where the counselling field is present. Historically, we are familiar with the purposes of supervision as a central professional function, and it is well-known that supervision is used to ensure a healthy practice of a profession. In counselling, supervision aims to best lead and teach those new to the field or those who are more seasoned but under supervision because of local professional regulations. Likewise, Counselling Supervision seeks to protect the population being served while ensuring quality, effectiveness, and accountability. The following conceptual and procedural elements are covered in this keynote. First, the Integral Counselling Supervision System (ICSS) is described, and its framework is explained, including how it has been emerging from a lifelong practice as a counsellor educator and practitioner in different counselling settings across borders. Then, a set of culture-rooted principles and how these are intertwined with diverse supervision dimensions and purposes are illustrated. After, a set of recommendations for counselling supervisors’ effective development and challenges associated with the practice of supervision are shared. Finally, some emerging perspectives from neuroscience and neuroeducation and their potential contributions to counselling supervision strengthening are offered.

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Bio

George Davy Vera, PhD

Associate Professor

Barry University, USA

Emeritus Professor (2014)

Counseling Education Program

Psychology Department, University of Zulia, Venezuela

Professor Vera has been a mental health counseling professor, clinical counseling practitioner, pedagogy researcher, and counseling supervisor for over 35 years. He holds a Ph.D. and MEd in Counselor Education & Supervision (University of Orleans, USA), specializing in clinical mental health counseling. Likewise, he holds a Counseling and Guidance BEd (University of Zulia) and a Counseling PsychologyMS (CIPPSV, Venezuela). At the advanced practitioner and field research levels,Dr. Vera earned a clinical counseling postdoctorate residency diploma (TheMcFarland Institute, New Orleans, USA) and a human science postdoctorate diploma (The University of Zulia, Venezuela). In addition, he holds various professional counseling licences and credentials in the USA, such as theLicence Professional Counselor (LPC), Connecticut, USA, the NationalCertified Counselor (NCC), Certified Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS),Board-Certified TeleMental Health Provider (BC-TMH), TeleMental HealthCertified (THTC), and Mental Health Facilitator Master Trainer(MHF-MT).

Dr. Vera has extensively published in refereed professional journals, presented research papers, facilitated professional development workshops, and gave speeches at national and international counseling and field-related conferences. His professional and research interests included counseling pedagogy innovations, clinical mental health counseling, narrative-reflective clinical supervision, culturally sensitive counseling techniques, innovative intervention strategies, postmodern and emerging approaches to counseling, multilingual counseling practices, counseling leadership, professional certification, program accreditation at national and global levels, and qualitative and mixed research epistemologies and methodologies. Dr. Vera is one of the founders and an active member of The International Society for Policy Research and Evaluation in School-Based Counseling (ISPRESC) and the Latin-American Counseling Network. Likewise, he is a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA), American Counseling Supervision (ACES), and the Florida Counseling Association.

As a counseling practitioner,Dr. Vera’s practices are imprinted by epistemological, reflective, dialogical, and ethical-critical frameworks for counseling services and clinical supervision. He uses holistic-wellness approaches nurtured by transtheoretical and cultural-sensitive counseling in servicing diverse populations: veterans, immigrants, families, adolescents, couples, and families, who are suffering from a range of challenges; MentalHealth Issues: depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, grief and loss. Relational Issues: intra-family, parenting, divorce, marital, behavioral, and socioemotional conflicts. LifeTransition Issues: educational, learning, vocational, academic performance, career, employment, and retirement matters.

As an Educator, Dr. Vera follows a reflective-practitioner teaching-learning model; his pedagogy framework is oriented toward the premise that learning counseling implies learning diverse ways of being, thinking, feelings, understanding, intervening, relating, and interacting. He thinks these ways must resonate with the philosophical corpus and highest purposes of counseling and its professional, procedural, methodological, and technical body of knowledge. Dr. Vera’s counseling pedagogy stands by the vision that any classroom, real or virtual, is a space where diverse cultural beings are interreacted, unique voices are encountered, different learning styles are intertwined, and inspired meanings are shared.Consequently, Dr. Vera’s teaching intentionally facilitates students’ engagement, reflective thinking, ethical reasoning and energizes curiosity in a community that encourages self-directed learning, empowers creativity, and stimulates personal growth by discovering deeper meanings during the educational encounter.

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12:00 PM - 1:00PM IST

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