"Dear Supervisee: Why I Started This Blog"
I used Warrell's (2013) four questions to guide my thinking as I reflect on the reasons why I am writing this blog at this point in my life.
What makes you come alive? I come alive when I can serve my community.
I am a social worker, and a consequence of that is that I am intuitively an advocate for the communities I serve and work with. I have always rooted for the underdog, the underserved, the targeted, the marginalized, and the purposefully left out. That is where I come alive. I am also someone who is not just one thing. I have several passions, and the other part of my work that makes me feel truly animated is my role as a teacher and professor. I enjoy working with adult learners who are students who have fallen in love with social work, with mental health, with service and social justice. They give me hope for a better world.
I tend to be a disappointed idealist. I tend to be cynical, but not pessimistic. I love a good science fiction film about the end of the world precisely because I am inspired by the idea of a world rebuilding itself by the quiet, stubborn success of goodness. My students give me that same hope. That is why I want to advocate for them as they engage in their practicum training. They are student learners, not your next free employee. Treat them well, teach them robustly, and receive them with gratitude as they enter this field of mental health.
What are your innate strengths? I put a lot of thinking into how I teach, and I put a lot of care into my approach to teaching.
I have always loved program development. I am someone who enjoys flying a ship while building it. I am not risk-averse, and I find genuine energy in creating and launching new things. That disposition makes me a natural systems thinker. I love the experience of working alongside a new intern and watching something click into place as they learn. I believe that my educational psychology lens makes me a better field instructor because I see the value in teaching with skill, empathy, patience, and intention. My pedagogy is informed by Freire, Piaget, and Anzaldúa, among others. What I am saying, plainly, is that I bring both rigor and care to the work of teaching and I would ask the same of anyone who trains my students. Please set high standards. And please attend, with equal care, to the full person inside your intern.
Where do you add the greatest value? "¡Ahorita es Cuando!"
I knew before I began that my experience was valuable, and my students have confirmed it, they consistently name the wealth of practical knowledge I bring to the classroom, the way it bridges theory and lived practice. I am writing this blog with twenty-five years of Social Work and Mental Health experience behind me. Now is the time to put that experience to work in support of interns and associates as they enter their training and begin accumulating their licensure hours. There is a saying in Spanish: "¡Ahorita es Cuando!", the time is now. I believe that wholeheartedly.
How will you measure your life?
I know that I will measure my life by a range of deep personal, professional, and spiritual metrics. And I know that one of those metrics will ask me, in the end, what kind of teacher I was. It has been the greatest honor of my life to teach students about mental health, psychology, and social work. I did not always imagine myself as a teacher but I fell in love with university teaching the first time I stood in front of a class, and I have never looked back.
I have heard the full range of stories that interns and associates carry from their early training years to the powerful, transformative learning that happens inside a supportive and empowering supervisory relationship, and the quiet damage done when that support is absent or, worse, when people are taken advantage of. Both realities move me.
So I begin this blog holding positive assumptions about both Supervisees and Supervisors. I am going to assume that each of you wants to be here and that you want to teach well, or to learn well, or both. My hope is that the tools and resources I offer help you find your way through this teaching and learning relationship with clarity, honesty, and mutual respect.
Stick with me as we explore the legal, ethical, and practical responsibilities of Clinical Supervision. Share your stories. Offer your feedback. This blog belongs to all of us.
Warrell, M. (2013, October 30). Know your why: 4 questions to tap the power of purpose. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/10/30/know-your-why-4-questions-to-tap-the-power-of-purpose/
Source: Why I Started This Blog
