Therapeutic supervision refers to parenting time or contact overseen by a licensed mental health professional or therapist. It is a more structured and clinically oriented form of supervision than lay supervision or agency supervision.

Therapeutic supervision is used when the relationship between a parent and child needs professional support to be safely maintained or rebuilt. It may be appropriate when there has been a significant gap in contact, when reunification is a goal, when the child has expressed fear or anxiety about the parent, or when the parenting interaction itself requires clinical guidance.

Under the Alec and Lydia Act the court cannot order a victim of domestic violence whether a parent or a child to participate in any inpatient or outpatient treatment, counseling, or forensic assessment jointly with the abusive parent. This prohibition covers therapeutic supervision formats and closes a gap that was sometimes used to force victims into ongoing contact with their abusers through court-ordered therapeutic processes.

Therapeutic supervision is expensive and the availability of qualified professionals varies. Any court order for therapeutic supervision should specify who the supervisor is or how they will be selected, who pays, and what happens if the supervisor is unavailable.