Dr. Adler has supervised mental health professionals at various stages of their training and independent practice for over thirty years in Denver, Colorado. She has supervised trainees: graduate students in psychology, psychiatry residents and child fellows, as well as psychoanalytic candidates. Other supervisees have included counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, child psychiatrists, and pre- and post-doctoral psychologists preparing for Colorado licensure. Her clinical expertise encompasses the evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents, and adults; working with parents; and consulting with other professionals and organizations.
Clinical Supervision
Overview
Why Choose Dr. Adler for Supervision
With over three decades of experience, Dr. Adler offers supervision that combines deep psychodynamic expertise with broad developmental understanding. She specializes in:
- Child and adolescent therapy and psychoanalysis through a developmental lens
- Parent counseling and parent-child dynamics
- Adult treatment grounded in psychodynamic principles
- Complex cases involving family systems and intergenerational patterns
Her supervision style is both supportive and demanding — creating space for vulnerability and curiosity while maintaining high standards for clinical and ethical excellence.
Supervision Philosophy
Dr. Adler views supervision as a collaborative relationship that serves multiple functions — teacher, mentor, consultant, and evaluator — aimed at enhancing the supervisee’s professional development while safeguarding the quality of care provided to patients. She creates a structured yet supportive environment where supervisees can strengthen their clinical skills, deepen self-awareness, develop and refine their theoretical orientation, and navigate professional and ethical challenges with growing confidence.
Her approach mirrors her clinical work: grounded in psychodynamic and developmental principles, attentive to what lies beneath the surface, and respectful of the supervisee’s emerging professional identity. She believes effective supervision balances psychological safety with accountability, fostering an atmosphere where supervisees feel comfortable exploring uncertainty, receiving constructive feedback, and taking ownership of their clinical decisions.
When to consider clinical supervision and consultation
For Early Career Clinicians:
- Receiving mentoring and developing a professional identity and practice
- Preparing for psychology licensure where a certain number of hours of supervision post internship are required
- Receiving supervision during training post-licensure, such as programs in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis
- Learning about the treatment of patients we haven’t worked with much before.
- Encountering serious problems, such as trauma, chronic anxiety , affective disorders and psychosis
- Seeing patients whose treatments have stalled
Areas of Supervision and Consultation:
- Assessment of patients, and if working with children, how to include parents in the assessment
Working with parents more generally - Transferences and countertransferences
- Learning more about the techniques of working with fantasies, play (for children) and dreams
Ethical and legal concerns - Dealing with interruptions and terminations
- Treating various stages in the life cycle, such as children, adolescents, working with their parents and older adults
For Experienced Clinicians:
- Wanting continued professional growth
- Finding a safe relationship to discuss concerns and feelings about patients
- Increasing understanding of our internal obstacles to treatment
- Learning more in depth about the issues listed above
- Wanting a second opinion
Who Can Benefit from Supervision
Dr. Adler provides supervision to professionals across disciplines and career stages, including:
- Pre-licensure psychologists in Colorado working toward independent practice, who receive structured guidance on clinical competencies, case formulation, ethical decision-making, and preparation for licensure
- Post-doctoral psychologists seeking continued growth in psychodynamic and developmental approaches across the life cycle
- Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) and Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC) looking to deepen their understanding of therapeutic process, transference and countertransference dynamics, and developmental case conceptualization
- Psychiatrists and child psychiatrists interested in enhancing the psychotherapeutic dimensions of their work alongside medication management
- Early-career and seasoned clinicians seeking consultation on complex cases, developmental dimensions of adult and child pathology, or a shift toward more psychodynamic practice
Supervision Formats
Individual Supervision One-on-one supervision tailored to the supervisee’s level of training, clinical population, and developmental goals. Sessions can focus on discussing cases more generally, reviewing video and/or audio recordings of sessions, and examining process notes and exploring other clinical material. Individual supervision is available for pre-licensure psychologists and licensed professionals seeking ongoing consultation.
Group Supervision Small-group supervision offers a collegial learning environment in which members take turns presenting cases and sharing other clinical material. Group participants benefit not only from presenting their own work but also from observing and contributing to colleagues’ case discussions. Groups are structured to ensure each member receives focused attention while building a community of practice.
What Supervision Includes
Dr. Adler’s supervision addresses the core tasks of clinical supervision, including:
- Case conceptualization through developmental and psychodynamic lenses
- Diagnostic assessment and treatment planning
- Teaching techniques appropriate to each developmental stage of the supervisee and their patients
- Exploration of transference and countertransference in child, adolescent, and adult treatment
- Legal requirements for Colorado licensure and licensed psychologists as well as professional ethics
- Cultural humility and sensitivity to social, economic and cultural contexts
- Understanding how personal history shapes clinical work
- Risk management, documentation and current best practices, including telehealth
- Professional identity development and integration of theoretical orientations
- Feedback — both verbal and written when appropriate — with periodic evaluation and goal setting
Dr. Adler utilizes supervisees’ process notes, session recordings (if available), case presentations, and dialogue to create a rich learning experience. She provides regular feedback to support growth and maintain professional standards. Supervision agreements outlining mutual expectations, frequency, confidentiality parameters, and evaluation methods are established at the beginning of the supervisory relationship.
Areas of Specialized Focus
Dr. Adler’s supervision is grounded in psychodynamic and developmental principles, with particular emphasis on:
- Child Therapy — Understanding the child’s inner world through play, drawings, and verbal expression; recognizing conscious and unconscious anxieties, fantasies, and defenses; distinguishing between normal development and psychopathology
- Adolescent Therapy — Navigating identity formation, shifting attachment needs, transference dynamics unique to adolescent treatment, and managing acting out
- Adult Treatment — Identifying recurring relational patterns, understanding how early developmental experiences shape current functioning, working psychodynamically with transference and countertransference
- Parent Counseling — Helping supervisees guide parents to understand their child’s behavior through a developmental lens, exploring parent-child dynamics, managing parental resistances to their child’s treatment, engaging parents while maintaining appropriate boundaries around the child’s privacy and confidentiality
Logistics
- Session frequency and duration determined collaboratively based on supervisee needs
In-person sessions available in Denver - HIPAA-compliant video sessions available for remote supervisees
- Written feedback and periodic evaluations provided as appropriate for licensure and training requirements
- Fees: Rates vary by the experience of supervisees. Sliding fees for early career therapists are available.
Clinical Consultation
Overview
Dr. Adler consults with individuals, small groups, and organizations about challenging relationships and organizational dynamics in schools and the workplace. Her clients include lawyers, physicians, teachers, school counselors, preschool directors and clergy as well as other professionals whose work requires understanding complex interpersonal systems.
Approach
Dr. Adler’s consultation draws on psychodynamic and developmental principles to help individuals and groups understand the patterns and often-unconscious forces that shape workplace relationships and organizations. She helps clients explore:
- Underlying motives that maintain unproductive systems and patterns
- Emotional dynamics — anxiety, competition, resentment, dependency — that drive behavior beneath observable conflict
- How individuals’ developmental histories and roles intersect with organizational culture
Resistance to change and its psychological meaning - Repetitive relational patterns within the group or institution
Through this process, clients gain increased understanding of the emotional issues and opportunities present in their professional environments, improve their coping skills, and apply principles from human development to work-life challenges.
School Consultation
Dr. Adler currently serves as a member and former head of the Schools Committee for the Denver Psychoanalytic Society, where she applies developmental and psychodynamic expertise to the unique dynamics of educational settings. She has worked with teachers, counselors, administrators, and parents to understand the emotional, developmental and systems factors that shape learning, behavior, and school environment. (School brochure)
Format and Logistics
Consultation is available for individuals, small groups, and organizations. Sessions may be conducted in person or via HIPAA-compliant video. The scope, frequency, and structure of consultation are tailored to the needs of each client and established collaboratively at the outset.
For public schools and nonprofit programs with financial need, the Denver Psychoanalytic Society provides a pro bono, volunteer community service as part of its nonprofit mission.
Get Started with Supervision or Consultation
If you are interested in clinical supervision or consultation with Dr. Adler in Denver, the first step is a brief telephone conversation to discuss your needs, goals, and whether her services are an appropriate fit.
Contact Information
Phone: 303-721-7939
Location: Denver, Colorado (in-person and HIPAA-compliant video sessions available)