Perhaps the most vital key to sustaining the enthusiasm achieved during the eight sessions has been the ongoing coaching and mentoring for supervisors at LCFS. While both Wascow and Amaha recognize that the practice is still new within the agency and not all supervisors have fully implemented it yet, it has created a more hopeful atmosphere within the agency and even those supervisors and managers who initially expressed some resistance to yet another new initiative are “coming around.”
Reflective Supervision is taking hold because supervisors and staff are experiencing the difference it is making in their day-to-day work. The practice, Amaha summarizes,
“Provides opportunities for workers to be creative, to think, to brainstorm, and to have give and take relationships with one another. Workers and supervisors and the agency as a whole are growing together. When people feel appreciated and valued, they give more – I have seen workers push themselves further than they did before because this model creates a safe space for trying different approaches to solving problems and challenges presented by clients.”
Wascow reiterated the value of the “safe space” concept inherent in Reflective Supervision and is appreciative that the agency is making the physical quiet spaces available as well as supporting the philosophy of safe spaces. The Community Meeting approach to engaging workers in this safe-space model of supervision as illustrated and practiced within the eight week training has proven to be an effective tool in supporting workers and supervisors as they adapt what they learned in training to the workplace environment.
