Mentoring is a process in which one person with experience, guides and supports another person who is learning and/or developing their skills towards certain career goals and outcomes.
Important note: In the context of AKA requirements, mentoring hours are the hours you spend in clinic that are discussed with a mentor, not the hours you spend with a mentor.
What is the difference between Supervision and Mentoring?
Watch the video below to understand the difference between supervision and mentoring. In a nutshell, supervision is direct observation of a kinesiology balance whereas mentoring is a discussion between you and your mentor about balances you have conducted where the hours you spent balancing clients is counted, not the hours spent with the mentor.
Watch this short video to understand how you can get your required supervised and mentored clinic hours.
The following outlines the requirements of a supervisor and/or mentor:
Practitioner accreditation
To become accredited with the AKA, you require a minimum of 20 hours supervised clinic and a minimum of 30 hours mentored clinic. These minimum hours will allow you to apply for Level 4 – Registered Kinesiology Intermediate Practitioner. Whilst on level 4, you will need to completed an additional 45 hours of mentored clinic within two years of achieving Level 4 practitioner status to reach the required 20 supervised clinic hours and 75 mentored clinic hours. Level 5 and 6 require all 200 clinic hours (50 supervised clinic hours and 150 mentored clinic hours).
Mentees
Your membership requires that you complete 200 hours of Supervised Mentored clinic in total.
Level 4 Requirements
If you are level 4 and you have not yet reached 95 hours of clinic (20 supervised clinic hours and 75 mentored clinic hour), each year at renewal time you need to submit proof of a minimum of 20 hours of mentoring in order to maintain your current membership level.
Not yet eligible for registration
Similarly, if you have not yet completed enough hours to register with the AKA, you will need to gain 200 hours of supervised mentored clinic. You can begin by completing a minimum of 20 hours supervised clinic and a minimum of 30 hours mentored clinic and then apply for level 4 membership. If you are studying, you may join as a student member in the meantime.
How to get supervised/mentored hours
In order to do this you will need to document the details of your supervision and/or mentoring and you will need to use the services of an AKA approved Clinical Supervisor and/or Clinical mentor for this to be recognised.
You must maintain a record of the mentoring and supervision you receive. You require in total:
- 20 hours of face to face supervision, for AKA Practitioner registration level 4 plus
- 75 hours of non face to face mentoring, for AKA Practitioner registration level 4
- 50 hours of face to face supervision, for AKA Practitioner registration levels 5 & 6 plus
- 150 hours of non face to face mentoring, for AKA Practitioner registration levels 5 & 6
What does mentoring entail?
This is a 15 minute video of a mentoring session between Peter Morningstar (AKA Registered Mentor) and Gail Medland (AKA Level 4 Practitioner) providing an example of what may be covered in and demonstrating the simplicity of a mentoring session.
Mentors/Supervisors
Being a Clinical Mentor can give you satisfaction in your career goals with the knowledge that you have assisted someone else in the kinesiology industry to upgrade their skills.
Read the guidelines before applying to become an AKA registered mentor or supervisor.
As a registered clinical mentor or supervisor, you must maintain records of the sessions you conduct. Use these forms to submit annually to the AKA.