REFLECTIVE SUPERVISION

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REFLECTIVE SUPERVISION

• Supervision Mentorship are Relationships for
  Learning.
• Provide Regular Opportunities for Individuals
  (less experienced and more experienced) to
  Reflect Together about Their Hands-on Work.
• Essential Features Reflection Collaboration
  and Regularity.

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Introduction Donna Davidovitz
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Regularity

• Must Occur Regularly.
• Time Must Be Allocated for These Relationships,
  and the Time Must Be Protected.
• It Takes Time to Reflect, Time to Collaborate,
  and Above All Time To Establish Trust in the
  Reliable Nature of the Relationship Itself.

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Collaboration

• Shared Power, Clear Mutual Expectations, and Open
  Communication.
• Power derives from Knowledge, not just Experience
  or Conviction.
• Power can be held Mutually Without being Shared
  Equally.
• The Process of Reflection Encourages Ongoing
  Self-Evaluation.
• Formal Evaluations Become Occasions for a
  Systematic Review of What Have Been Continuing
  Conversations.

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Collaborative Relationship

• Clear Mutual Expectations Roles
  Responsibilities Must Be Established.
• Participants Need to Agree on the Logistics of
  Their Arrangement When Where They Will Meet.
  
• Must Agree on the Content They Will Look At
  Together Might Include On-the-Job
  Performance, Directly Observed Written Notes of
  Interactions with Children Families an Oral
  Account of Experience or Reflection on
  Supervisory Relationship Itself.
• Need a Clear Mutual Understanding about the
  Nature of the Relationship Boundaries
  Distinctions between Supervision Friendship,
  and Supervision Therapy.

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Relationships are Central in Reflective
Supervision
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Features Regularity, Safe, Collaborative,
Reflective
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Why Promote Reflective Supervision?Benefits

• Models a mutually respectful, collaborative
  approach to monitoring performance maintaining
  an acceptable level of service.
• Models a mutually respectful, collaborative
  relationship that parallels the supervisee/family
  relationship
• Creates Maintains an overall climate of
  intellectual inquiry, open communication, empathy
  with staff concerns, and support for the
  long-term professional development of staff.

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Supervision/Mentorship

• Essential for Delivery of High Quality Services.
• WICAPs Mission Helping People Help Themselves
  compliments Reflective Supervision.
• WICAP Head Start R Time Practice Recognizes
  Builds on Capacities, Resilience,
  Resourcefulness.
• Reflection Golden Rule Do unto others as you
  would have them do unto others.

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Facilitate Communication

• Supports individual practitioners, particularly
  as they deal with the stressful aspects of work
  with infants, toddlers and their families.
• Shape Questions with which to Probe and Ponder
  Their Behavior, Beliefs, and Values, as well as
  reflect on WICAP Head Starts Program
  Philosophies, Mission, and Service Delivery.
• Provide a Relationship and an Environment in
  which the Professional Identity can Emerge
  Gradually, until what once seemed Tacked on
  Becomes a Core Part of the Employees Sense of
  Self.
• Encourage Thoughtful, Open Communication in Daily
  Activities.
• Communication Flows Freely in Both Directions.

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R Time Provides Opportunities

• To Deepen and Broaden Knowledge
• Reflect regularly, in a safe environment, on the
  full range of reactions to the experience of
  practice
• Discuss individual goals and measure progress
  toward them
• Develop refine ones professional use of self
  and individual style, through increased
  self-understanding.

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The Importance of Open Communication that
Provides Staff Support
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Guidelines to Engage in Effective Dialogue

• Show up and be fully present
• Pay close attention
• Tell the truth
• Be open to a variety of outcomes, not attached to
  particular outcomes
• Be committed to creating a shared understanding
  and a shared learning.

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The Importance of the Supervisor Modeling Ways to
Problem Solve, Think, Connect With the Families
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Reflective Supervision

• Both parties (supervisor supervisee) need to
  commit to the R Time process
• Supervisor introduces R Time as an opportunity
  to think and talk about service delivery.
• It is a safe environment to communicate
• Allows them to expand their own problem solving
  skills
• Encourages Professional Development.

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Relationship Based Early Intervention Work
Builds Staff Parent Alliances
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The Reflective Supervisors Role
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Thinking about Reflective Supervision Techniques

• HOW TO BE
• Be aware of your own feelings
• Strike a balance
• Provide a safe empathetic environment
• Help determine boundaries
• Reflect on hesitations
• Resist the urge to take over and tell staff what
  to do
• Remember and use information from past sessions
• Maintain boundaries (time regularity).

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Thinking about Reflective Supervision Techniques

• HOW TO UNDERSTAND
• Listen very carefully
• Use open-ended questions
• Raise questions about counter-transference
• Raise questions about boundary issues
• Use questions to reframe
• Try to imagine the experience
• Take time for clarification.

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Thinking about Reflective Supervision Techniques

• HOW TO INFLUENCE
• Address issues of concern directly
• Model language
• Set up mini-role plays to practice language
• Label issues (role conflicts, ambiguity, etc.)
• Participate in collaborative problem solving
• Use observations over time
• Keep the focus on the dyadic (pair) interaction.
• Raise possibilities rather than dictates.
• Ask questions (why they did not address an issue?
  - What they would redo?)

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-WICAP Head Start Reflective Supervision Process

• Review Established R TIME SCHEDULE
• Schedule Reflective Time with staff you
  supervise.
• HS-502 WICAP HEAD START R TIME SUPERVISION FORM
• Process Copy form (R Time participant
  schedule) for each individual you supervise (that
  documents times you met) and submit copy of form
  to your supervisor along with your month-end
  report.

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Training Sources

• Fenichel, E., (n.d). Zero to Three/National
  Center for Clinical Infant Programs Work Group
  on Supervision and Mentorship. Learning through
  Supervision and Mentorship To Support the
  Development of Infants, Toddlers and Their
  Families, 1-9.
• Davidovitz, D. (November 4-5, 2002). Lecture
  Understanding and Implementing Reflective
  Supervision.