How well are your supervisees engaging in supervision?

In an ideal world, we want our supervisees to bring an enthusiastic and open approach to supervision.

We want them to be self-directed learners. We hope they’ll be inspired by the way supervision can empower them to build their clinical expertise and provide them with a supportive space that can help them flourish.

However, this is not always the case. Supervisees can be reluctant or negative towards supervision. For those of us who find supervision to be such an engaging and transformative experience, it can be hard to understand this attitude.

Frequently in my supervision training programs, supervisors express concerns about how to engage supervisees who are averse or unwilling to engage in the process. In fact, this often is a learning goal for supervisors as to build their skills of engaging their supervisees.

What has been your experience of engaging supervisees in supervision?

There are many factors that can become barriers for supervisee engagement. Negative experience in the past, lack of understanding of what supervision is and how positive it can be, lack of psychological safety, lack of a learning culture in the workplace are just a few of these barriers.

It may take time for supervisees to become more open and willing to value their own supervision and understand how to drive it for their own benefit.

Below I have reframed some of the common challenges that supervisees can present with, and bring a more positive light to their experiences and turn these into learning goals.

1. The Very Optimistic Supervisee

This supervisee often presents a positive outlook, presenting the ‘everything is fine’ attitude, glossing over challenges or areas for growth. Their enthusiasm can be a strength, but it might also be a hurdle to acknowledging and addressing difficulties. Over time, they may need to learn to be more comfortable with the vulnerability of being a learner.

2. The Extra Cautious Supervisee

This supervisee may seem hesitant to engage in supervision, perhaps due to past negative experiences or not knowing how to use supervision. They often benefit from learning about supervision as well as a supportive environment where their supervisor models and normalises being a learner.

3. The Consistent Approach Supervisee

This supervisee tends to stick with familiar methods and may be slow to incorporate new skills and strategies. They value stability and routine, and with gentle guidance, they can be encouraged to try new approaches incrementally.

4. The Challenged Supervisee

This supervisee may be under a lot of personal stress, navigating personal challenges or mental health issues. As they may have a lot going on personally, they may need support through a crisis and benefit from personal counselling and/or EAP as well as supervision. Over time, as the crisis subsides, they can benefit from consciously reflecting on how they are developing skills to be at work while navigating personal challenges. It is a critical skillset in our industry.

5. The Healing Supervisee

This supervisee has experienced previous negative learning experiences or even learning trauma that affect their willingness to engage in supervision. They benefit from a compassionate and patient approach to build trust and confidence in the learning process.

6. The Concerned Supervisee

This supervisee often focuses on external factors beyond their control. They are often pre-occupied by frustrating and understandably dis-heartening issues like inequities in the system, unhealthy workplace culture or other factors that they cannot influence. They are conscientious and dedicated, and although offloading how they experience these issues is very important, with gentle guidance, they also can be guided towards concentrating on areas where they have influence.

7. The Action-Oriented Supervisee

This supervisee tends to focus on action and doing, rather than reflecting. They are proactive and eager to take action. Over time, they may need to slowly learn to incorporate reflective questions and practices into their routine to help build greater reflective capacities.

8. The Spontaneous Supervisee

This supervisee rarely comes to supervision prepared, preferring a more spontaneous approach, to arrive and see what happens. Over time, they can be encouraged to see the value in reflecting on their learning goals and engage in thinking about how to make the most out of their supervision sessions.

By viewing these supervisee types through a positive lens, supervisors can better tailor their support to each supervisee's strengths and areas for growth, fostering a more effective and collaborative supervisory relationship.

Supervisees may benefit from having a greater understanding of how supervision can be a positive and even transformative experience.

I can suggest a few things:

1) Encourage your supervisees to take the Best Practice Supervisee Survey, to help them learn about supervision

2) Encourage your supervisees to immerse themselves in training and attend our next Getting the Most out of Supervision Training coming up in August

3) Explore my Best Practice Supervisee Survey, to see how well your supervision practice aligns with best practice

4) Attend my Professional Supervision training if you have not completed it as yet