Maintaining the Supervision Relationship
Introduction
After you choose a Supervisor to work with, things don't really end there. It's important to make sure the relationship continues working for you and that you're achieving your goals. The key to this is feedback, usually through Supervision Evaluation.
The Supervision Evaluation Form
Your Supervisor should have an Evaluation Form to complete. This is usually introduced early on in the relationship and your Supervisor will establish expectations around how often this is to be completed and what happens with the information within a submitted form, e.g. whether it’s anonymous or discussed at the end of each session.
The NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission say that an Evaluation Form should be done at least annually. I personally would prefer a little bit more regularly! At minimum, I think quarterly is more appropriate to let your Supervisor know whether things are still going well or if something is starting to trouble you about the sessions or relationship.
In an ideal world, I’d convince my Supervisees to do one after each session so I can easily jump in when a session didn’t hit the mark. For example, I’ve finished a session before thinking that things went great and I’d really encouraged my Supervisee to problem-solve and empowered them to find their next steps. Then after looking at the completed evaluation, I saw that the Supervisee had appreciated it, but actually wanted me to give them clear direction and suggest strategies as they’d never worked with this participant’s diagnosis before. Reading that, I was easily able to send them a follow up email with my recommendations for strategies.
Everyone’s evaluations are different, but they should all capture the overall perspective about whether Supervision is or isn’t working for you. Using the NDIS Commission’s example as a basis, this should ask whether your needs are being met, the relationship with your Supervisor is comfortable and helping you improve in your practice, your expectations are being realised, and there’s a positive and useful outcome to your sessions.
In my evaluations, I also like to ask what’s working best for you, and where I could improve my practice in supporting you. If you can’t think of anything, great! If you can, I want to know so I can make your sessions as valuable as possible. This is your time, after all, and the role of a Supervisor is such an important one to your continued improvement as a practitioner and, honestly, in maintaining your well-being and resilience.
If you want to see an example of a Supervision Evaluation Form, you can sign up to our free Member’s Only site where our form lives for easy access.
The Details Your Supervisor Wants to Know
The kinds of feedback Supervisors (speaking for myself here) want to know about are whether:
Supervision frequency is working for you
Duration is okay, not too long or too short
Delivery mode is working (e.g. online, face-to-face, hybrid)
Style or Supervision model suits you (e.g. do you prefer to be prompted towards an answer or do you prefer sometimes just being told?)
Match between you and your Supervisor feels comfortable and secure
You’re feeling like you’re progressing and growing as a practitioner, both in terms of skills and knowledge
You’re feeling like you’re developing and moving forward within the PBS Capability Framework levels
We’re covering the topics that you want to cover
You feel like we’re spending our time wisely!
If any of the above feels off, it can cause minor all the way to significant disruptions to your development.
Some of the above can be fixed - make sessions weekly instead of fortnightly, bring a standing agenda item of evidence review for the PBS Framework, preparation and following of a Supervision Agenda each session, etc. In these kinds of situations, open feedback might resolve this, but only if your Supervisor has a method of collecting feedback, is open to hearing it, and will take it seriously to work better with you.
Unfortunately, some of these things are more fundamental. If there’s a mismatch in values, style of PBS (e.g. the ABA approach can sometimes be a point of contention), or the trust or security in the relationship with the Supervisor has eroded, it can be more difficult to repair the relationship. In some scenarios, it might even be time to move on.
I would recommend reaching out to your Supervisor first, if you feel comfortable and if you feel as though things are not too far gone. However, you ultimately know what’s best for you, your practice, and your future. I would love you to feel empowered to take charge of your own Supervision to make sure that it’s working as hard as possible for you. That it’s taking you step by step towards your goals and the kind of practitioner you want to be.
Conclusion
When you have a great Supervisor, you’ll feel like there’s a nice, warm blanket around you. You know things might happen, but someone always has your back and will support you when things go wrong. You also know that they’re completely invested in your development, and you can be safe in providing feedback when something isn’t right or could be better.
They say the best gift is feedback, and like my experience mentioned earlier, we don’t always notice when we’re not on the same page. So regularly (at least quarterly) make sure you’re having some reflection on how Supervision is working for you and advocate for yourself where you need to. If they’re a good Supervisor, they’ll thank you for it, and your relationship can move forward as you continue working together more effectively and in tune.
Author: Rebecca Kim
