185 How To Know If You Are Actually Ready To Supervise

Clinical supervisor readiness is often framed as a confidence issue, but that is not what we see in practice. Most clinicians who consider supervision already have the experience. What they lack is a clear, repeatable structure for how supervision actually works. In this episode, Dr. Ashley Stephens Durbin and I explore the gap between being ready and being prepared, and why waiting for certainty often keeps clinicians stuck longer than necessary.

We also break down the difference between counseling and supervision. Supervision is not simply an extension of clinical work. It is an evaluative role that requires documentation, accountability, and ethical clarity. Without systems in place, supervisors can quickly feel overwhelmed or inconsistent. This conversation highlights how structure, not personality, is what creates effective and sustainable supervision.

A major focus in this episode is the role of systems. From contracts to evaluation to remediation, these are not optional components. They are what protect your license, support your supervisee, and create a process for real growth. We also address the importance of humility in supervision, knowing your limits, and connecting supervisees to the right resources instead of trying to be everything for everyone.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

•  Why readiness to supervise is different from feeling confident 
•  What systems you need before taking your first supervisee 
•  How evaluation and remediation actually support growth 
•  Why supervision requires structure, not just experience 

If you have been questioning whether you are ready, shift the question. It is not about readiness alone. It is about whether you have the systems to support it.

Want to learn more? Check out this month’s free resource from Kate Walker Training.

If this episode got you thinking about whether you are truly ready to supervise, or made you realize that what you are missing is structure, not confidence, you don't have to do it alone. These are the exact conversations we have inside the Step It Up Membership, where we walk through how to create supervision processes that are clear, ethical, and repeatable so you can step into this role with confidence and consistency.

Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's kind of surprising to people, those like imposter syndrome people of like, the board isn't going to tell you what to do with that. There is quite a bit of this, like kind of figuring it out for yourself. And I think our course also kind of highlights that of here's the structure, here's the outline, here's the blueprint. But how you do and what you do is up to you.

Imposter Syndrome And Timing

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to the MS Therapists, building practices of the line. There's a version of maybe I'll become a supervisor someday that therapists carry around for years. Not because they don't want it, but because they're waiting to feel ready. And nobody ever told them what that looks like. So today, Dr. Ashley Durbin and I are naming it what the decision to supervise actually requires and what it doesn't, and how to know if this is your year. Spoiler alert, you're probably more ready than you think. So if you've been sitting on supervisor eligibility and keep finding reasons to wait, this episode's for you. Now let's get to work. Hey, I'm Dr. Kate Walker, and this is my colleague, Dr. Ashley Durbin, and we're going to take you through readiness, readiness to supervise. What does that mean? Are you ready? Are you worried you're not ready? All of the things. And then by the end of this, what we really, really hope is that you feel ready. And even if you're a grad student, we want supervision to be on your radar. You know, counseling, social work, any kind of mental health profession, you're in an office, you know, teeny tiny office, and you're delivering services. And yes, you have your master's degree, and it feels so good at the end of your graduate studies, and you think, okay, I've done it. I've done it. Well, that feeling lasts, I don't know, what do you think, Ashley? Maybe 12 months, 18 months. And then you're like, okay, what's next? And if you're like us and you get diplomaitis, then you go re-enroll in school. Okay, don't do that. But there has to be a next step for you. And that's, you know, just kind of part of it. Counseling, delivering services, it's not going to be the end all be all forever. And it could lead to burnout depending on your situation. And counseling is such a different animal from supervision that I know, you know, Ashley and I, we talk to a lot of people and they're thinking, okay, I'm just going to go be a supervisor, check the box, off I go. And that's a mistake, too. Like you don't want to be that overconfident. So we're going to help you find not a messy middle, but a nice tidy bow on tight on top kind of a middle, so that you can land in a place where the next step is supervision and you feel really super good doing that. So uh pain points. Pain points. What do you think, Ashley? Like, what do you think? I mean, I hit on a couple. Like, what do you think people feel when they think about that next step of supervising?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah, I think for me in the social work world, the thing I hear the most is imposter syndrome. Like, who the heck am I to tell people what's what and to pass on my information? And some of the people that I've heard this from, honestly, I'm like, you have done the most things in this field, like that I know. You've taught, you've worked in a PHP IOP, you've worked inpatient, you've worked outpatient, you've done therapy, blah, blah, blah. And there's this like, I don't think I'll ever be ready. And I'm not totally sure that anyone needs what I have. And while we are big proponents of like, maybe wait a minute after you finish the process, you know, don't jump the gun, you know, is even two years after you're fully licensed for social work or three, five years for LMFTs and LPCs, like, is that enough? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the person and their maturity and all sorts of other things. But don't wait forever. Our field needs your knowledge. And you've done amazing things, even if you've only done one thing really deeply, really well.

Picking A Training With Support

Finding Supervisees Needs Structure

SPEAKER_00 4:33

And if you're feeling that, like, okay, I don't know what I'm walking into. Do I really know enough? Who am I to talk to someone else about how to develop their career? Let's say you're doing the work then. You're like, okay, I'm going to do this. When you go research supervisor training programs. So if I'm talking to you and you have a supervisor training requirement, not every state does. A lot of states, they're just like, hey, you are now a supervisor. Congratulations. You know, whether it's you've been practicing three years, five years, or whatever. But many, many, many, many courses, I'm sorry, states require a supervisor training course. So you start Googling this stuff and you start looking, you're, and it's confusing, you know, because you're about to spend a chunk of change on something that, you know, there's probably no refund. You're probably going to, you know, put your butt in the seat and start listening to someone and think, oh my gosh, this is like drinking from a fire hose. And how do you find, how do you know when uh what you're purchasing is actually a good quality training that's going to do more than give you just the stuff. It's going to give you more than that. It's going to give you support and uh scaffolding. I like that word, scaffolding, so that you can start to stretch and do the next step, which in a lot of states too, many, many states, I would say more states than not, you can add it as a side hustle. You can start uh a supervision business. So even if you're supervising as part of your agency work, you know, if they said, please become a supervisor, and you said, Yeah, okay, I'll do that. You know, starting the business, holy moly, like that's a whole other, you know, can of worms. So that may be where you are too, thinking, okay, I think I'm ready, but I don't I don't know where to turn. Um and of course we have answers for that, but don't want to get ahead of myself. What else, Ashley? What's another pain point? Where where else might people struggle when they're thinking about that next step?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yes, I think the how is a is a particular, you know, I think sometimes what I hear a lot when people have taken a step and they've become supervisors, they're like, how do I find people? How do I find people? How do I find people? And I'm like, are you ready when you found the people? Are you ready? Do you have your paperwork set? Do you have the structure set? Do you know some of those things that we teach in the gate course about all of what the do's and don'ts of like legality and what's gonna cause liability and what's not? All of those kinds of things I think people think of as I'll get to it once I have people. And as I kind of did when I started my supervision business, it it kind of does even continue to feel like that fire hose in the face of I got a lot of people pretty quickly because I used my Texas course for four other states to become a supervisor in. So I was marketing like crazy. And I'm like, I just need people, right? I want to start filling my coffers and my books and getting away from that one-on-one therapy. And then I got into a place, as I think many of us do, and and we'll hear stories a little later about what it looks like when you've gone too quickly, too fast, or don't have that structure set up. But I think people think that that's a secondary or tertiary concern. And let us be the first to say it should be primary.

Rules, Boards, And Brain Space

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah. I mean, we hear people, but I don't know all the rules, but I don't I don't know what paperwork, I'm not a paperwork person, or I'm not a rules person. I mean, uh, you know, that goes through folks' head when they think, okay, no, I can't be a supervisor because I'm not that person. I'm not the detailed paperwork, yada, yada, yada kind of person. And, you know, that's another thing where I think Ashley and I are really, really dedicated because we want to provide that safety net. And I tell this story all the time. You can probably go back to another episode and hear this, but I taught this course in person and it never failed at least four or five times a year. Someone would stand up at the end of the course and say, Well, hell no, I'm not going to do this. There's too much liability. It's too much paperwork. There are too many details. The rules change too often, the liability is too high. And yes, yes to all of that. And that's when we recognize, okay, it's really not about the material. I mean, we could give you guys hot links to every single state that shows you exactly what we're supposed to teach in these courses. I mean, it's in it's encoded, it's in the rules. We have to teach this in Joe Schmoe down the road. They've got to teach the exact same thing. But if they're not providing you with that scaffolding, the systems, so that you can do all of this legally and organized and uh, you know, efficiently in a way so that your supervisees also feel supported. You know, you're you're gonna be one and done. You're gonna have one or two supervisees and you're gonna be like, okay, that that was no fun. I did not enjoy that. Or on the flip, you're going to say, Oh, my supervisees were wonderful. But did you evaluate them? Did you give them a remediation plan? Did you really get into the teaching part of it? So, you know, again, the the just nuts and bolts of what a course has to teach. Anybody can go to the websites and see exactly what that looks like. But what a course delivers that makes you feel warm and cozy by the end of it and supported so that you can do this thing called supervision super confidently. Well, that's a whole different animal. And at the end of the day, we want you to feel that support. But we also want to talk about you're probably more ready than you think. Right. I mean, it's like Ashley, your very first story, you talked about that person who is saying, No, who am I to do this? And you're thinking in the back of your head, holy moly, you know tons. You have done so much. So, I mean, how would you talk to that person to help them understand, look, you've got the skills?

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yes, yeah. And and one of the things that people like this often say too are like, Ashley, I will never know the rules like you know them. I'll never know the paperwork like you know it, I'll never know that kind of like procedural process kind of stuff. And I always say to those people, firstly, this is what I do for a living. That changes, you know, if you're not doing 30 hours of therapy back to back to back to back to back, and barely getting time to pee, walk, see the sun, etc., you have it's a shock. I know, bear with me. You will have some brain space to remember the rules. And maybe you aren't going to be like Kate Nine saying, like, oh, 781.404 is the supervision rules of the rule book, which it is. But like, that's me and my brain. Those are the things. But the rulebook is there for you to download and to go through. And do like us, where it's like, oh, I know they talk about this thing. Let me control F for find and search that word. Like, we're not, I don't, I can't tell you what page if 187 pages or whatever the new one's at. I can't tell you what page it's on, but I certainly can tell you the meat and the potatoes around what the intention is. And I can also tell you things like the board has things that they will engage, those are the state laws, and they will have things that say, you're on your own, babe, about. And it's kind of surprising to people, those like imposter syndrome people of like, the board isn't going to tell you what to do with that. The board isn't gonna tell you what to do with that. There is quite a bit of this, like kind of figuring it out for yourself. And I think our course also kind of highlights that of here's the structure, here's the outline, here's the blueprint. But how you do and what you do is up to you. We recommend using our tried and true formula for some of these things. But if you want to go full on Wild West and do your own thing, have at it. It's your practice. Um, but those, like, you know, I feel like sometimes that imposter is just like seeing us know the rules, seeing us go to the meetings and saying, well, I'll never be able to do that. And I promise when you can clear your plate a little of the emotional heavy work of the individual therapy, you will have a little more brain space to learn these things. And when you're doing this more and more of your life, you're gonna start remembering those things and really being engaged with the rules and laws too, because they guide your work life. So it is, you know, in part you're ready and in part you'll have time and brain space and surprisingly the room and energy to play with it, promise.

Humility And Staying In Your Lane

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, I I don't know if y'all noticed, but Ashley and I did not go to law school. Like, there's there's a reason I I know for me I didn't go to law school. Like, you know, I mean, we've we have zeroed in on these portions of the law that affect our licenses. But it was funny, like I I was at uh a webinar that we host. We have a series that we do every year called Texas Supervisor Coalition Monthly Workshop Series, super long name. But this morning's workshop was on supervisory billing and incident to billing. All right, so stay with me. I'm trying to get, you know, because the first 10 minutes, it's always chaos. I'm getting people in, I'm trying to help out everybody find the PowerPoint and the links and all the things. And then I look at the numbers. There are 61 people in this webinar in the first three minutes. And I was like, holy moly, I okay, I I'm gonna be real here. I didn't know it was that big of an issue. And I, you know, I've been out of the supervising game for about four or five years. And so, you know, hosting this webinar, I knew that there were people out there that it was a big deal because Ashley and I, we're on social media. We see how all of these, you know, people are in different camps about incident to billing and supervisory billing, and it's a lot of a confusion, but you know, total transparency. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. But after that two or three minutes, I was like, oh my gosh, I need to stop and pay attention to this. And our our uh presenter, she was amazing, Lacey Castille Fisher from Austin, and she talked about so many things I had no clue about because well, there are a lot of reasons, but I'm telling you this because if you're listening to this thinking, okay, I'm not ready because I don't know the rules or I don't know the procedures, or I'm not, you know, Kate Nashley, and I just don't, you know, eat this stuff for breakfast, well, you know what? There's a lot of stuff I don't eat for breakfast too, you know, and incident to billing and supervisory billing. I mean, our brains, my brain, can't stay on top of everything. I have to have systems, I have to have networks, I have to have people and organizations that I can plug into and then unplug from, right? Because I need what I need, but I can't get overload and just stay in it the whole time. So that's part of the the joy of what Ashley and I do because we can be that group that you plug into. I mean, that's why you're listening to this, I'm assuming, right? You're like, okay, I'm on my way to Pilates. I'm gonna plug in and see what this is all about, readiness for supervise, becoming a supervisor. I mean, and then when you get to Pilates and you park, you're gonna turn us off, or maybe you'll keep us in your headphones when you get on the treadmill. That's why we're here. We want to be that thing, that organization, that you know, library that you can plug into. And then when you're done, unplug and go watch your favorite TV show or something like that. We want you to have a life while you're doing this cool thing called supervision.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah. And and I think like going back to the question of like how to know if you're ready to supervise, that I think leads perfectly to my like main mantra, which is I don't say things I don't know. I am not, if I'm not the insurance guru and I'm not, I'm never going to be the supervisor who's like, here's how to do insurance. I'm going to plug those people in with the resources and the, you know, online, the communities, you know, Kate's group on Facebook, all of the things, because I'm not going to act like I know more things than I know. What do I know really well? Supervising. And that's what we're here to do is in and teaching people how to supervise and set those systems and those processes up. But I can't know everything about everything. Like EMDR, for example, I was on this sense that like I am getting out of therapy. I'm not doing this anymore. EMDR, you know, has been around, but it really got huge a couple of years ago. And everyone's like, EMDR, EMDR, EMDR. And I'm like, I ain't your girl. Like, I'm not it. I'm not going to pretend like I am. I haven't got trained in it. I haven't paid for it. I'm not going to because I'm not going to do therapy. So how can I get you to the people in the places? And sometimes that's even like you'll do a year of supervision with me to learn my stuff. And then maybe the second year you'll go and do more intensive work with somebody who does EMDR, for example. But like knowing you're ready is also having the humility and realizing I don't know everything. That's okay. And realizing that you have value in what you have and your connections of being in the field for a while may also lead them to get what they need too.

The OER Triad System

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Hey, quick pause. This month's free bonus is called Stop Working for Free, the Therapist Fee Reset. And it's updated for the clinician who's been adding value to the profession without making sure their practice actually supports their life. It'll help you see the full picture of what adding supervision, adding teaching, adding consulting really adds to your practice. Not just the hourly rate, but the professional case for making the move. Grab it free at KateWalker Training.com/slash bonus. Now back to the episode. So one example of, let's say, systems, right? So I this is just bare bones. It's something we teach in the course. It's something that I have in my book, The Clinical Supervision Survival Guide. It's one of those things that I remember when I was in my PhD program, I would read this piece of research and I would just go, well, duh. I mean, that's what we're I just read an article that proved listening helps. You know, it's like, oh, well, of course it does. But for you thinking about becoming a supervisor, just one system that we teach is called the OER triad. Okay, what is that? Well, basically, we want you to start with a contract, which a lot of states want you to have. A lot of states don't care, they don't put it in the rules, but we say no, we start with a contract. And you tell the potential supervisee what you're gonna teach. You give them an orientation, so you show them how you're going to teach it. Then E, you evaluate them to make sure they understand. And then R, you give them a remediation plan if they're still struggling. Because this isn't counseling. We can't just say, oh, well, you're not meeting your goals. We're going to part ways, have a great life. With supervision, you're engaged in getting this person somewhere, which is to becoming, you know, we want them to be your colleague. You want them to become their your colleague. And so this OER triad is a super simple system that you learn when you take our courses so that you're tackling that fear of details, you're tackling that fear of being disorganized, you're tackling the fear of, do I know every single thing and can I support the supervisee? So it sounds simple because it is, but not one single course in the United States of America and around the world says you have to teach the OER triad. I cannot think of one. And we have looked at a lot because we are nationwide now, and we have looked at so many rules for so many states. Yeah. You know, it may say, okay, you need to teach paperwork, but nothing says you have to teach an OER triad. But if you're if you're letting that fear hold you back, well, guess what? We just totally nip that thing in the bud. Quote Barney Five. Y'all don't know who that is.

Liability Insurance And Complaints

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Do you? Um, I do. Um, yeah, and and I think, you know, I know Kate has a story about this, but I tell this to my supervisees. I tell it to people who I I coach through the process of becoming supervisors. I have known, you know, for supervisees, I've actually had a couple that have had complaints. None of them have have made, but there were two that I know from people who were in the field for like 40 years. And of all the people I know, it's kind of shocking that it's only these two. I'll I'll say kind of they weren't valid necessarily, but like that had to go through the process. And actually, they had to get lawyers and all of these things, spend buckoos of monies because they didn't have liability insurance because they both worked at the VA and thought they were safe. Quick pro tip you're never safe. Your company's insurance policy is not your personal insurance policy. Get your own dang liability insurance. But that's another story for another day. Um, two complaints. One was a client, the other was a supervisee. And that that person spent$40,000 in legal fees to clear up what that person, the complaint that that person made. It was unfounded, it it eventually went away, but you don't get your money back from your lawyer when that happens. So, and I think that those are the kind of like when we talk about this stuff, it's not because we, you know, it's not abstract. It's not like, oh, I think this is a good idea. This is lived experience from us, from the people we know, from the things that we've seen in our years and years, some would say maybe decades in the field, um, just one or two. Um, but those are the kinds of things we say this because we know that it is good practice, it's gold standards for protecting you and yours.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

So you know, you understand so much about the field. If you're listening to this and you're a grad student, okay, well, you maybe you have a lot to learn, but you're enthusiastic and you're about to go get some amazing supervision. If you're listening to this though, and you're thinking, okay, yes, supervision is definitely in my, you know, at the end of the road somewhere, it's on my radar, but I have questions. This is where we want to take you. I want you to understand it's about systems. It's about systems, not just your knowledge, right? Because the field needs somebody that knows the skills you know, who looks like you, sounds like you, does the things you do, works with the people you work with, they the the population, we pick your pronoun, need you. So systems, because every course can teach you the basics. You are able to evaluate. Now, I've shared before, evaluation is super hard for me because I'm a conflict avoider, but I'm really, really good at it now. This is something that again, over time you can get better at, but guess what? Not every course is gonna teach you how to do that, give you a process, give you a process for that. And then making money, understanding that if you're just out there going, oh, I'm gonna add this new stream of income, and then you have the whole, if I build it, they will come mentality. Well, you know what? That doesn't work for private practice, it doesn't work for supervision. I mean, some arenas, yes, absolutely, but you need to understand how to network, you need to understand how to build relationships with universities, get your name out there as a reputable person that universities can refer grad students to who are about to become provisionally licensed. So most of all, I want you to think back to the supervision that you had, right? And if you had amazing supervision, then do you want to pass that along as it was passed to you? If you had terrible supervision, well, that goes back to my previous point. We need you because you're not gonna do that. So just the fact that you're thinking that way, that you're thinking, well, I'm not gonna be like my supervisor, there we go. That's a hole that we need you to fill. I'm making motions with my hands if you're listening to me on the podcast, so that we have better services going out there. We are filling the gaps in access to care. Because if we don't have supervisors, we don't have supervisees, if we don't have counselors who are growing and social workers that are becoming professionals and fully licensed, you know, we're just gonna have a not good. It's gonna not be good.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

When you were talking about evaluation, one of the things that and bad supervisors, you know, if if my supervisor is listening, she'll know, she'll know the story because she did it. Um, I in the VA, they're really big fans of 360 evaluations. I don't know if anyone has heard of 360 evaluations in the world of industrial and organizational psychology. It's like huge. So 360 evaluation is basically it's a kind of a wraparound. You get people who are above you, your boss, your manager, your whoever, to rate you and how you're doing on any number of items. You get your peers to rate you kind of at that lateral level, and then you get anyone underneath you to rate you. So you kind of have top mantle below, you get this 360-degree view of how you're doing. And when we talk about evaluation, remediation, like the O, the E, and the R are all important pieces of this because I got this evaluation. I had been at my place of employment as a 23-year-old social worker for uh right at a year. I knew nothing about anything. And I got this really horrible evaluation that basically said, you have so much room to grow, you're not where you should be. And I had a like full-on crisis. My supervisor did zero with that information. It made me feel like crap. And then I just sat with it and thought I was a terrible person and co-worker and supervisee and all of the things for years. It kind of took me to get to a place of like, I'm not that that kid anymore. So the remediation and evaluation, what we talk about when we say that is not just like assess people to assess them and then hang them out to dry and walk away. It's to do something with, it's to make better, it's to process, it's to you're here now, but let's build a structure to get you there later. And so I think like for me, when we talk about that, I just want to make it perfectly clear that when we talk about evaluation and remediation, it is not you suck and then you walk away and never like go back. That's literally what happened to me. So, you know, we do give you that. It's not just evaluation for like writing a number like you scored five out of 10 today. That's not what this is. It's to improve the relationship, improve the clinician, get on more resources or skills on board and grow this person into being your colleague as a fully licensed person. So that's really important.

Next Steps And Resources

SPEAKER_00 30:01

I kind of want to leave it with that. I mean, that's I as you're saying that I've got my supervisor going through my head. And I could pick up the phone today and call him and ask him a question, and he would he would answer. And I love that. I mean, this isn't just a little snippet of your life. This is you becoming a mentor. You're paying it forward in so many more ways than you think. And you can do this, you have the skills. So I I just I love that. Yeah. Don't don't be like Ashley's supervisor. Nope. We'll teach you that. We'll teach you that. All right. So you're more re you're I can that's hard to say. You are more ready than you think. Take a second, take a deep breath, go back and listen to this again, and then consider. Just put a little post-it note on your bulletin board, kind of off to the side, maybe stick it to your computer, and just consider that you could be that person. Yes. All right, have a great day. See ya. If this episode got you thinking seriously about maybe adding private practice, supervision, consulting, a new certification, something to your practice that could enhance your life and the bottom line, your next step is simple. Grab the bonus at KateWalkertraining.com slash bonus. It's going to walk you through exactly what you need in place before you add that extra thing this month. And if you're ready to make it official with starting supervision, it's easy to do. Just go to KateWalkertraining.com slash supervisor training. If you love today's episode, be sure to leave a five-star review. It helps other Banass therapists find the show and build practices that thrive. Big thanks to Ridgely Walker for our original fun facts and podcast intro, and to Carl Guyanella for annotating this episode and making us sound amazing. See you next week.