195 The Hidden Risks of Supervisor Certificate Mill Shortcuts: Will Your Certificate Pass a Board Audit?

If you've been shopping for supervisor training, don't miss this episode.

More than simply a box-checking exercise, the training you complete becomes the foundation for how you guide associates, make ethical decisions, and protect both your license and theirs. With AI making it easier than ever to create online courses, it has also become easier for low-quality "certificate mill" programs to look legitimate.

In this episode, I'm joined by Jennifer Marie Fairchild, Director of Operations at Kate Walker Training. Together, we discuss the questions every therapist should ask before purchasing any supervisor training. We also share what we discovered after reviewing several online programs ourselves and explain why convenience should never replace educational integrity.

This conversation isn't about criticizing course providers. It's about helping you become a more informed consumer so you can confidently choose training that truly prepares you for the responsibilities of clinical supervision.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why verifying your instructor's credentials matters more than ever
• The warning signs of a certificate mill
• How AI is changing online education, for better and for worse
• Why references, syllabi, and meaningful assignments still matter
• What your licensing board may expect if your supervisor training is ever questioned
• The difference between earning a credential and simply receiving a certificate
• Why responsive customer support should be part of any quality training program
• Questions associates should ask before choosing a supervisor

The goal isn't to find the cheapest course or the fastest certificate. The goal is to find an education you can confidently stand behind if your professional decisions are ever called into question.

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

Want continued support after you become a supervisor? Join the Step It Up Membership, where we continue the conversation through Tuesday Coaching, expert trainings, supervision resources, and practical business education.

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

Why Supervisor Training Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today I'm joined by my colleague Jennifer Marie Fairchild, who also happens to be the director of operations here at Kate Walker Training. So she sees everything when it comes to our supervisor training. We're talking about how to evaluate a supervisor training, including mine, against the questions a licensing board would actually ask. In the age of AI and certificate mills, it's really important that you spend your money carefully in this arena. If you've already bought a course or you're shopping for one, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Hey, I'm Dr. Kate Walker, and I am joined by Jennifer Marie Fairchild, who is my assistant, my right hand at Kate Walker Training, and she is a licensed therapist. So she's an LPC associate in Texas. And uh Jennifer, what is your credential in New Hampshire? Clinical mental health counselor candidate. Okay. So definitely going to be a powerhouse episode today because we're talking about certificate mills and how it can cost you in the arena of supervisor training. And for those of you who've never listened or watched any of these episodes, welcome. We're so glad you're here. But this is kind of what we do. This is what Kate Walker Training is built on is supervisor training.

What Our Program Actually Supports

SPEAKER_00 1:28

And um, Jennifer, talk a little bit about what you do with the 40-hour training. That's what it is in Texas. It's called the 40-hour training, and we offer it for LPC, LMFT, and social work. So, Jennifer, talk about what you do for all of the courses nationwide.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

You know, you know, years ago when you first posted that you needed assistance kind of looking over assignments and grading, that was kind of where my starting point was. And it just really kind of over evolved over time. And at this point, I answer questions all the time, all day long. We have course participants asking questions about supervision, asking questions about the administrative code, ethics. Every question you can think of, they ask. I assist with purchasing. I assist with, we offer amazing payment plans because courses are expensive and we want to make these things affordable. You know, I help out with, we have a supervisor directory, we have the step it up membership, bringing expert speakers so that there is a constant flow of resources during the program, after the program, while you're supervising, just so that it's not just a one-time experience. You get your certificate, see you bye, best of luck to you. Um, so it really is a very hands-on daily part of my life.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

And you manage our graders. You manage our graders and the weekly study hall. And yes, I'm doing this because not only do I want Jennifer to toot her own horn because she's amazing, um, but the title, I mean, the topic today, you know, a certificate and all, you know, when it comes to a supervisor training, you're learning a brand new skill. So I'm going to compare it to something I know nothing about, which is EMDR certification. I know nothing about EMDR, but if I was going to add that to my practice, I would want to take a certification course where I learned what I was doing because of client care. I want to make sure I'm delivering excellent services, but there's a part of me too that's terrified of making a mistake. Like I do not want to do something that's going to get me into trouble. Right. And as counselors, therapists, clinicians, we're constantly on that balancing beam of, okay, delivering excellent client care, and I don't want to get in trouble. I'm going to deliver excellent client care and try this thing, but oh, I don't want to get in trouble. And so what is the happy place for that? Well, I mean, your instructor, instruction, your instructors, the courses you take. If you're practicing in this profession, you most likely have a master's degree or above. So deciding to become a supervisor is like crazy awesome. We want you to do this. We want you to give back to the profession and grow the next generation of counselors. I just want you to imagine if you took a course that was a certificate mill instead of an actual training. So I'm going to refer to Texas training because it is a 40-hour training, but we also offer ACS credential, which is a 45-hour training. And then, of course, you may be listening to this or watching this from a state that doesn't require training, or maybe they just require a three-hour or something like that. That's okay. We're talking to you too because this is so important. And there's a reason this kind of, uh this not kind of, that this appeared on our radar. Jennifer, talk a little bit about. As we do, we kind of we scrub the interwebs, we scrub the social media things. Like we, you came across a course.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

One of the things that I have grown to really respect and admire about what you have put together. And yes, sure, I could be biased, but this is this is a very true and real example. Is you don't just replicate the product year after year after year. You are constantly looking to develop, to improve. What do I need to add? What needs to be taken out? You listen to feedback, you take it into consideration. It is a constant developmental course because we we really want that course to be the best it can be. And so I'm constantly, you know, on Facebook. I'm, you know, reading posts, I'm listening to what people say, I'm looking at other courses that are popping up. What are other people offering? And, you know, the the saying you get what you pay for doesn't really apply because these courses cost money and people are charging a lot of money regardless of the value. And so I kind of started coming across these courses that were very different than than what you have put together. And so we wanted to see why they were different, what made them different. Um, were we like being outrageous? And was our course like be hard and like it be that hard? And so, you know, we started looking into these courses, and then I found some very interesting things.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah, and and to be fair, a few years ago, in fact, before I offered the online supervisor training, we've been teaching some form of the supervisor training since 2006. But when the law changed in 2019, we were allowed to offer it completely online. Um, honestly, the first course I offered online was the Train the Trainer course. So I actually have trained uh through our online training the several instructors in Texas. And so I didn't do that for very long. I switched really quickly into the completely online supervisor training, but I did a lot of research into what makes a great course. Now, fast forward to 2026, actually 2025, and the advent of AI, and we have a whole new ball game.

The New Era Of AI Courses

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Y'all, course creation is big business. Okay. Anybody, you Google it, you look online. If you want to uh excel, if you want to grow your practice, so many therapists offer online courses, which is great, wonderful. But we came up with seven things to look for when you are going to take a course for a certification, right? So my example earlier was EMDR. So you can actually use this criteria with anything, but we are going to frame it for your supervisor training because that's what we know about. We don't, I mean, I don't know about EMDR certification or plate therapy certification or any of those things. So number one is instructor mismatch. So

Verifying The Real Instructor

SPEAKER_00 8:27

we know several states have a rule. In fact, I think most states that require a course have a rule that states the course must be taught by a licensee in these professions. And so in Texas, it happens to be if you're going to give the LPC or the LMFT course, you must be a supervisor. LPC specifies you must be an LPC supervisor. And so that's really important that you're able to verify your course is taught by an LPC supervisor. Now, here's the problem. Jennifer, what did you find when you took one of the courses?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

So one course, you log in, supervisor is there, lovely headshot. You have an introduction video, hear said supervisor's voice, and for the rest of the course, it's not the same voice. The entirety of the rest of the course is read by somebody else. So that assumption that that first video was the supervisor goes out the window because now I don't know whose voice that was, and I don't know whose voice the second voice is. So I don't know realistically who was teaching that course because it was video content throughout the duration of it. It was mostly video content. And I don't know who was reading me those slides. I have no idea who taught me that. I don't know if it was AI. I don't know if it was their next door neighbor. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Let's go ahead and like be devil's advocate here. So let's say that it was an LPC um supervisor, because again, we're just referring to Texas here. The other part of this, there were no references in this course, right? No bibliography, no, no citations, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

No. And there was a there was this course did did put together additional reading material. There was, you know, like a list of additional resources at the end, but they were mostly links and there were no references, no citations, nothing. And, you know, we we come out of grad school and you know, that is drilled into your head, side, side, side. So I was like, oh my, like we're not, we're not giving credit where credit is due. And that's, you know, in a in a postgraduate level course, that's probably not best practices, I would argue.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

So for number one, the instructor mismatch, if you are listening to this and your state requires that the course is taught by a certain license, you know, look for a course or ask a question. Hey, is your course a feature a picture in a picture? Right. So uh kind of like, you know, you can see the face. What Jennifer and I are doing now, you could see the face. And if we were screen sharing, you could see the slide as we were talking. So that's a great way to verify that it's not AI, that it's actually the instructor. And if they are offering references, because maybe you're gonna take a course that is just no videos, right? It's just read, read, read, read, read. Well, without references, who's what are you really reading? Right? You could be reading about something that the instructor made up, right? I mean, that's just a good practice. You're a critical thinker, you're a master's graduate. So understand. And if you're listening to me and you're a bachelor's graduate, or maybe I and you're in a state where you know you just need to have some CEs, that's okay. You've got the knowledge to be a critical thinker, to understand, wait a second, this is important. I need to make sure what I'm being taught is actually from a reputable resource. Um, which brings to number two. Uh, this

Syllabus And Source Transparency

SPEAKER_00 12:07

course had no syllabus, right? Correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Uh not none of the courses I looked at had a syllabus. And to follow up on that last point, another course I looked at was taught through a company, and I have no idea who actually was teaching the course because it was only reading material. There were no videos, and there is no clear distinction who is the proprietor of the course other than the company is kind of alarming considering we have to be taught by an LBCS or you know, somebody with a doctoral degree. And and I can't identify that. So I don't even know who to ask questions to.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So no, and that gets to, you know, we'll get to we'll get to customer service in a second, um, because that is important. Um,

The 20 Minute Course Problem

SPEAKER_00 13:03

so I wrote down for number three, um, finishing in 20 minutes, right? I mean, so it so pay attention if you're in a state where you have to take a 45-hour course or a 20-hour course or a 15-hour course. In all of our research, we have not run across anything that said you can finish in 20 minutes. Um, but talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

There are courses that are built into these online platforms that are literally you just can click through them. And within 20 minutes of purchasing one of the courses, I was able to click through the entire course. There were no assignments, there were no quizzes, there was a final quiz. And at the end of it, it was take the quiz, and here's your certificate. And it was crazy that this is marketed as a 40-hour course. How can I justifiably have earned a certificate 20 minutes after purchasing it?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

And because we're not going to say how much this cost, but let's just say it was over $400. I mean, for 20 minutes, we're, I mean, it was kind of crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

I mean, I was like, surely this isn't no, come on. Uh this can't be this easy, but I just kept clicking and then it was auto-generated certificate.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

And I think you, I mean, you and I talked, like you're not even sure that passing the quiz would have stopped you from getting the certificate because some of the the questions were still placeholder, they weren't legit questions, it was just, you know, actually they weren't anything. And um, you got the certificate anyway. Correct. Yeah.

Liability And Digital Footprints

SPEAKER_00 14:47

So let's talk for a second about liability. Because again, if your state says you must take a course that is this long, and uh here's the language we run into a lot. It has to be this long or it has to be a graduate course in. So let's say, you know, you're you're getting your PhD in one of the courses is a three-hour course on clinical supervision. So that's generally what the states will say is you can take a online continue, or I'm sorry, a outside continuing education course or a doctoral level three semester hour course. So let's say you you took a course and it took you 20 minutes and you got your certificate, you turn it in, you got your S, and then something happens and you show up to the board to defend yourself. And somehow it comes up that you took a course that you were able to finish in 20 minutes. Keep in mind, most certificates aren't gonna say that. They're not gonna say you finished in 20 minutes. But uh, I know with our courses, we put a beginning and an ending date. And we also have a grading lag. So we tell folks our graders take at least 10 business days. So we know you're not gonna finish this course in 20 minutes. And it's a way of protecting you so that when you go to, you know, something goes sideways, you are able to confidently say, no, no, this this course was 40 hours. I mean, it took me 40 hours to finish this. That's integrity. That's to make sure on our end, we're delivering what we're saying we're gonna deliver. But Jennifer, share something. Uh, yeah, because I know you put this into chat, or something came back and they were like, hey, red flag, but I mean, there was so much AI in the courses.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

I figured mine that is well, why not? So one of the questions I just asked, like, what are the ramifications of this scenario? And immediately, you know, AI was like, oh gosh, this is not good. And one of those being the integration of CE brokers. And we live in a digital age. We've we've known that for the last 20 years. We live in a digital age. There is metadata and there's digital footprints everywhere we go. And not saying that the board is going to start digging metadata and your digital footprint out of things, but CE broker, according to AI, has that capability built into it. And if you're in a program that is directly reporting to CE broker, CE broker is getting that information according to AI. So I don't know for sure. But it is even that knowledge, whether true or not, should be enough of a deterrent to proceed with nonsense, at least as far as I'm concerned. But we live in a very technology-based society. And I don't feel comfortable turning in anything with a digital footprint of 20 minutes. I just don't see how that couldn't come up at some point somewhere in some instance. Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Absolutely.

Receipt Certificate Versus Credential

SPEAKER_00 18:06

So let's talk a bit about the difference between a certificate and a credential, a certificate and a receipt. Right. One of the things that we put very clearly in our FAQ for all of our courses nationwide, uh, the question, is purchasing the course the same as purchasing a certificate? And our answer is always, absolutely not. This is a course. You must show that you have finished the social work courses. We do have an exam. We do place some quizzes in within our courses. So depending on the course and the state, we might have some exams in there. So actually, that goes to what I'm saying. You know, we're not just going to hand you a certificate at the end as a receipt for completing a course. And I would hope that a play therapy training would not do that for you. I would hope that an EMDR training would not do that for you. So thinking of your certificate as a receipt, again, if something goes sideways and you've just got a receipt certificate that says you finished a course, but you haven't digested the material and you were able to click through in 20 minutes, versus a certificate that shows you have a new credential, right? This can go after your name and you're proud of it. And it shows you have the knowledge. That's a real problem with some of these courses that auto-generate a certificate at the end.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I want to add to that, yeah. You know, our support team looks at every single individual at the end of the course. We go through every single person's file, you know, to audit it, basically. And that's, you know, what we tell people hey, we've ran your final audit, you know, you're in our certificate queue. It is a very hands-on, individualized process for each participant. So you, when you get your certificate from Kate Walker Training's 40-hour supervisor course, you can confidently say, I completed all of the state's requirements because we went through and verified that. We didn't just auto-generate a certificate. We go in, we verify everything, we make sure everything's, you know, up to par that everything, every box, every mark, everything's checked off, every assignment, every grade. And then we create your certificate for you and we send it so that we've laid eyes on it. We've literally, you know, created the whole process. So you know at the end of it, you did it. That is your, that is your confident stamp of approval or whatever you'd like to call it.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah. And our the states that we're in are accepting our certificates. And that is a huge tell about, you know, how your course is is doing, I guess. But this leads to what exactly should be on your certificate. This is the scary part. The rules don't always say. In fact, I have not run across one state that tells you what should be on the certificate. But I guarantee you, every single state goes through a process of looking at these certificates, and they're looking for certain things. They're looking for certain criteria. Otherwise, they kick it back. And so we we have the team to do that, right? We have the team to be able to, oh, okay, this state is asking for more information, not a problem. We can go back, look at the certificate, look at the course, and we can add to the certificate because we already know we've designed the course for the rules in that state. So, do you know your certificate from this course is actually going to be accepted? And, you know, I we are not calling out anybody on this podcast. In fact, Jennifer and I talked about this. We're not going to call out the names of these course providers because, you know, they're working hard. They're trying to solve a problem. And, you know, we we do. We think the best of people. We want people to succeed. But Jennifer, you had to go back and forth a couple of times with this person to get a certificate that would even be accepted by the state board you were trying to have it accepted by, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

As it was just, it was a very basic, generic certificate that probably came as a stock with whatever platform was being used. And I understand that. Like these platforms, they have this stuff already integrated and there's not a lot of room for, you know, changing it. The platform we use is one of those, but that's why we send out certificates, you know, another way. We because ignorance is not a defense to prosecution. I learned a long time ago in law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Well, let's talk about learning management systems because it is so tempting, again, to take a course that says completely online, automatic certificate at the end, boom, boom, boom. And

LMS Limits Fine Print And Refunds

SPEAKER_00 23:11

when you do that, what the course creator has done is they've utilized something called an LMS or a learning management system. And learning management systems are getting so good nowadays. They have a store built in. So you can take uh, you know, you can take people's money, you can complete the purchase, and you can deliver all the material and this boom, the certificates there at the end. But these systems are all different. In fact, we've done podcast episodes about how to choose a great learning management system. And there are so many criteria. But one of the things I know when we chose our learning management system, Podia, I had to realize that the certificate that it auto-generated was in no way, shape, or form going to be accepted by any state in this country for the courses we provided. So we have a solution for that. And that's something that we're real proud of. And so a lot of these certificate mill companies that auto-deliver certificates, they may be really struggling with their learning management system. And they just are very limited on the type of certificate they can even give to you. Yeah. That brings me to customer service, terms and conditions, refund policies.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Um, I highly encourage, you know, I am guilty as charged. I will just click by and move on with my life. But when it comes to purchasing e-goods, I encourage people to search on that checkout page for the little itty bitty tiny hyperlink that says terms and conditions, because you are purchasing a e-commerce product. And there are different refund policies typically associated with those. There's different terms and conditions, and that can impact your purchase later on, should you not be satisfied with your product. And so that's the one time I encourage people don't ignore it, read the fine print. I mean, obviously, don't ever ignore the fine print, but really don't ignore it. So, you know, that's what I did. I clicked on the fine print and I read through these terms and conditions, and I got to the end of one of the terms and conditions. And it was very clearly that they asked Chat GPT to write them and then they just copied all of it. So at the end of it, it's like, you know, don't forget to put this, you know, on your checkout landing page. And, you know, these are the key areas that you really want to emphasize. And then the best part was at the very, very end, it said, Would you like me to put this in a PDF form? Would you like me to put a shorter version of this that is more concise? And I was just like, you know, you didn't even, you didn't even spot check it. You just copied and dumped it in there. And now I'm wondering, that's like a really, really important facet of an online course that you're selling, and you didn't even like stop and double check that that wasn't in there. And now what if now I'm scrutinizing the material? And within two slides of the material, I already found something that was incorrect that they were teaching incorrectly. So when you're using AI and you're you're not, you know, providing accurate information even in the in the terms and conditions, that's a big risk.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Because that goes back to my point that courses are big money right now. And so if you're taking a course that has maybe been put together really quickly and someone's just hoping to make money while they sleep, because online courses just click, click, click, certificates are just flying out the door. That's someone who may not really understand all that goes into, like we've talked about, the learning management systems, what the certificates need to look like, the accurate content. Because, like you in in the courses you've taken, that's not the only course you ran into inaccurate information and no references, no bibliography, no syllabus, right? Correct. Okay. So blatant AI is probably a dead giveaway. You've got someone who's really not paying attention to the details. And I'm just gonna go out on a limb here. Supervision is courses, are probably a side business for them. Like they probably have a thriving private practice and they're just branching out, trying to make uh some added income on the side against uh again, nothing against side hustles. I preach side hustles. I think counselors should have a side hustle. But if you're going to do a state-accepted certification course like a supervisor training or an EMDR or a play therapy course, you have got to go above and beyond and every T crossed, every I dotted, every reference. And we didn't even talk about putting other people's work behind a paywall, right? That's that's one of the things I've been adamant about since we went online, is you are able to access every single one of the resources we use in the public preview. You go to the public, publicly viewable syllabus in any of our courses, and you will see every reference, every link to every resource that we have in this course. We we don't put other people's work behind a paywall. And that brings me to customer service. A huge

Support That Shows Up When Panicked

SPEAKER_00 28:43

part of what you do and uh why I love you so much and you are invaluable to this company is your ability to answer questions, like you said before. We have our weekly study hall that you run. We have our support tickets that you oversee everybody who answers those support tickets. You go in behind them and you make sure that everything's good. So the ability to contact someone when you're in the middle of a very stressful course, right? Because this is a new credential, you've spent a lot of money. How are people generally when they uh contact you for the maybe first time? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Um, you get a mix of reactions. Some people are panicky. Yeah. That's usually anxiety support tickets are are the number one because um they, you know, life gets in the way. We wait to last minute. I have zero judgment on that. I am again guilty of that. And so they they are, you know, might be in the middle of an assignment and and they need a question answered. And so we, you know, we're we're human and sometimes we miss questions and we really try to give thorough answers. I had a lady reach out about a question about using her VA benefits to purchase the course. I've never heard of that. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever. I knew you could use your, you know, VA benefits to go to a university, but did you know you can use them to purchase CE courses if they help with state licensing credentials? And no, no. I it was important to me to do the research, research, excuse me, and accurately give this individual an answer. So I I literally researched and gave her a very detailed answer. And that was her response. Oh my gosh, this is so amazing! I didn't even know I could do this. Because for us, me especially, I want people to feel like we're going to be there. The courses I looked into, yes, one individual was responsive and I was appreciative. Um, I don't, I still don't know who to contact for the other course.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah, there's not an obvious support link. There's not an obvious email. And, you know, when people and to be fair, in Texas, there is a 90-day limit. I don't think there's a 90-day limit anywhere else in the country. So in Texas, we have a special brand of anxiety uh because I'm looking into a camera right now. Hello, procrastinators unite, right? I'm I'm right there with you. Or life gets in the way. You know, we've got folks who get to the very end of this 90 days and they've spent some money and they need their questions answered. So that's an element of a course. If you're suspicious that this might be a certificate mill, look for the quick ability to contact customer support. And when we've been called out on Facebook, when we've been called out on, you know, on social media and people are like, I can't find somebody. We scramble. I mean, we're like, okay, where's the support ticket? What happened? And nine times out of 10, we find, you know, that we did respond. It went to their spam, or perhaps they are working off of a handle that doesn't match their course name, or we're not able to get through to their.edu email. So there's some sort of a mismatch or a misfire that we can we can fix. But my point is this takes a couple of humans. Like we really have to put our heads together, get with the team, and say, okay, we've got to make sure this person gets their question answered. So when you're investigating a course, if there's no obvious button to contact support, that's that's gonna be a problem. Yes, it's scary. All right, I'm gonna review. Here's what we got.

Nine Checks Before You Enroll

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Number one, you may have a problem with your online course if there's no in uh there's an instructor mismatch. So you can't verify 100% that the instructor holds the license that you need to, uh, that the rules call for, either because there's no picture in a picture or there are no references or something else. Number two, there's no syllabus. Again, looking for references, looking to see where they're getting this information. Uh, that's plagiarism, right? If they're if they're not offering any references. Uh if you can finish in 20 minutes, that's a red flag. Uh, if there's an automatic certificate at the end generated, and you're kind of questioning whether you would have gotten one, whether you passed the exam or not, right? Receipt versus credential. Number five, what is on the certificate? Does it look like your kiddo's, you know, perfect attendance certificate, or does this look like a certificate that will be accepted by the state you're trying to get the certification for? Number six, check the learning management system. Uh, and the easy way to do that is how easy is it to purchase? How easy is it to uh find the terms and conditions? When you read the terms and conditions, is it does it look like a copy paste from Chat GPT? Or is this part of the process frictionless? And is it obviously AI? If it's obviously AI, either because what you're reading sounds like AI or they're another thing to look for, if you have perused the rules and your course is telling you something different than what's in the rules, I know in Texas we have at least three changes a year in our rules. Like we have to stay on top of it. And so looking at something, if it's obviously AI, just be aware. Um, and I think number eight, because I didn't mention this, how easy is it to ask questions? How easy is it to get a support ticket started? And if there is a problem with that support ticket, how fast do they respond with help once once they realize something's gone sideways? Because nobody's perfect. We don't expect any of these courses out there to be perfect. We think we're pretty good, not gonna lie, love our courses. I feel like we put a lot of work into it, but you know what? So do a lot of other people. And there are excellent courses out there. So take your time, please take your time, ask the questions. Don't just pull the trigger because they're having a sale and it's Monday and you know that's it's a great deal. And if you don't act now, you're not gonna get the deal. Just take a breath. Ask yourself if something goes sideways, is this a course that I could defend myself with? Then reach out. I mean, we're happy to help you too. If you go to, if even if you're not in Texas, if you're part of Texas Counselors creating badass businesses, we can help you out. If you're in Texas and you're a Texas supervisor on Facebook, you can join the Texas Supervisor Coalition. Uh, any parting words?

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah. I just thought of a number nine that I want to address. So,

What Associates Should Ask Supervisors

SPEAKER_01 36:10

you know, we we constantly talk about the vicarious liability that supervisors run into. And that that brought up something that I really thought about as I was kind of going through this whole process. You know, associates take on liabilities as well, right? Even if they're kind of like unaware and they're just kind of like floundering out there, like, I don't know what I'm doing, because they're constantly drilled into them this idea that supervisors are the gatekeeper to the practice. And so they very much are relying on the expertise and the guidance of their supervisors. And supervisors are great. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience and you know, clinical expertise that they are handing down to these associates. But if these supervisors are A, getting their certificates, their certificate meal, meal, or they're B going through a course provider that does not offer additional after-the-fact resources that they can reach out to and get support and get guidance, you know, that associate is also offering themselves up to liability that they're probably unaware of. And so, you know, I encourage associates, don't just blindly pick the first supervisor that is offering a spot on a Wednesday that you, you know, is works great for you or is offering the cheapest rate that you can afford because we all know, you know, after grad school, being an associate is is not the most lucrative profession. Ask your supervisor what course did you go to? Like, hey, I want to know more about that process because it is important. There's so much liability. And if I'm a supervisor, I want to know who's gonna support me after I get my certificate. Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Excellent point. And I'm so glad you thought about that. I mean, we were even coming up with some interview questions for grad students to ask supervisors because that's important. I mean, the person who's supervising you, yeah, that's that's huge. So yeah, nine. We have nine things to look out for. And we'll do a few more episodes about this in a series because we it's important. I mean, AI is everyday, it's everyday use, and courses are big money. And for you to be able to make a great decision, heck, you may decide online's not the thing for you at all. And you want to go sit with somebody, you know, because you know you're face to face, you know what you're getting. And that's okay too. Like I would rather lose an online sale because you chose a face-to-face course than because you chose a course that gave you a certificate that's from a certificate mill. All right. So that's I'm sticking to. Anything else? Nope. That's all I got. All right.

Free Checklist And Membership Options

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Thanks for watching. See ya. If this was useful, hit like and tap subscribe and share it with someone who's thinking about becoming a supervisor. Grab the free supervisor onboarding checklist at Katewalkertraining.comslash checklist. And if you want the full system, including the Tuesday coaching, check out the Step It Up membership at Katewalkertraining.comslash step it up. I'll see you next time.