Center for
Integrative Neuroscience

Research · The supervision study

Supervision requirements are set state by state. This first wave is fielded in Michigan, and the same study travels to other states from there.

The country needs more supervisors. You may already qualify.

Thousands of counselors and social workers must complete supervised experience before they can reach full licensure. Public records tell us how many people hold licenses. They do not tell us how many are actually available to supervise.

The guide comes first. The research question comes after it.

The Supervisor Eligibility Checker Michigan · 2026 edition

Eligibility worksheet · Two training routes · Nine subjects · The open questions
The open hours question

Sources cited · Verified August 2026

The Supervisor Eligibility Checker shown as a printed companion, an on-screen checker, and three printable worksheets: the eligibility checklist, the training-routes sheet, and the Collaborative Care hours open question.
The photograph shows the wider body of work on supervision. The Eligibility Checker is the part the Center gives unconditionally.

Complimentary from the Center

Eligibility checker
Do I qualify to supervise?
Training pathways
Which two routes does the rule allow?
Collaborative Care note
Do these hours count?
Source notes
Where did this come from?

Open the guide →

No form between you and the guide. It is yours either way.

The Supervisor Eligibility Checker is complete on its own. It answers one bounded question: whether you qualify to supervise, and what your state’s pathway requires. It is not a sample of something else.

A larger supervisor practice kit covers agreements, documentation, fee guidance and capacity planning. That answers a different question: how to run supervision as part of a practice. Public guidance can explain a rule. Your state, licenses, payers, contracts and staffing decide what applies to you. Kedge Marketplace is the separate platform for that individualized work.

A license is not the same as an available supervisor.

Public records tell us who could supervise. They cannot tell us:

  1. Who actually supervises?
  2. Who has room for one more person?
  3. What does supervision cost?
  4. What keeps eligible clinicians from supervising?
  5. What would change their answer?

Figure 01

Where the pipeline narrows.

The license roster can show the path. It cannot tell us whether someone is available at the narrowest point.

1GraduateComplete your degree. 2Limited licenseReceive your limited license. 3Needs supervised experienceRequired supervised hours to reach full licensure. Yes 4ASupervised experience beginsWork with an available supervisor. 5AFull licenseYou reach full licensure. Not yet 4BWaits · searches · delaysWithout an available supervisor, progress is delayed. 5BThe path takes longerWithout available supervision, progress toward full licensure can be delayed.
Public records count the licenses on both sides of this diagram. They do not count the bottleneck in the middle.

The missing information is the supervision study. Your experience helps answer the question the public records cannot.

Center for Integrative Neuroscience · The supervision study

What the license records tell us, and what they don’t.

The license records can tell us how many counselors and social workers hold full or limited licenses. They cannot tell us how many fully licensed clinicians actually supervise, have an opening, or would consider taking another supervisee. That missing number is what this study is trying to find.

We can count

  • Fully licensed clinicians
  • Limited-license clinicians
  • Licenses issued and renewed

The roster cannot tell us

  • Who actually supervises
  • Who has an opening right now
  • What supervision costs
  • Why eligible clinicians do not supervise

The supervision study measures the part the license roster cannot.

A preliminary estimateThe Observatory’s current model suggests the gap could be on the order of nine thousand supervision slots in Michigan. This is a working estimate, not a measured count. The study is intended to replace assumptions with better evidence.

Figure 02

The supervisor training requirement.

Two routes the rule allows. Both must cover the same nine subjects.

Path A

2 semester hours

Graduate credit in counseling supervision

Path B

30 contact hours

Workshop training in counseling supervision

Both routes must cover all nine subjects

  1. Roles and functions of counseling supervisors
  2. Models of counseling supervision
  3. Mental health-related professional development
  4. Methods and techniques in counseling supervision
  5. Supervisory relationship issues
  6. Cultural issues in supervision
  7. Group supervision
  8. Legal and ethical issues in counseling supervision
  9. Evaluation of the supervisee and the supervision process

What the rule says

Two semester hours of graduate credit, or thirty contact hours of workshop training, covering all nine subjects.

What the state told the Center

The rule is not specific about the training provider.

What the rule leaves open

Whether asynchronous, self-paced online delivery counts as workshop training. The published rule does not say, and the Center has not found guidance that answers it.

The Checker shows what the rule requires and where the state has not supplied an answer. It does not certify a course.

Michigan administrative rule for counselor supervision · departmental response to the Center, August 2026

A separate open question

Do Collaborative Care hours count toward supervised experience?

Every state requires supervised experience before a limited-license clinician reaches full licensure. This is a different question from the training-format question above, and it has its own answer to find. Whether qualifying work performed as a Collaborative Care behavioral health care manager counts toward those hours remains an open question Michigan should answer.

This guide does not pretend the answer is settled.

The policy work to seek a clear answer belongs with the Integral Neuroscience Initiative.

The exchange · about six minutes

Six minutes, if the guide earned them.

Public records tell us who could supervise. Only supervisors can tell us who actually does. About six minutes on your current capacity, what gets in the way, and what might make you willing to supervise one more clinician gives us evidence the license rosters cannot.

Findings go to respondents first.

About 6 minutes

Current supervision · available capacity · cost · barriers · what might change

The survey

The study is not collecting responses yet.

When it opens, the invitation you received will return you to this page. The guide above is complete and yours to use now.

At the end, three permissions are asked separately: whether we may follow up, whether we may quote you anonymously, and whether you want the findings. None is required. You will see any proposed quote before we use it.