Are you ready to transform your career in mental health? I've got exciting news about free webinars for Texas counselors and our Counseling Grant Giveaway - over $1,000 in practice grants for those serving rural and underserved communities!
But that's not all. We'll also be unpacking the OER triad, discussing the importance of having a solid remediation plan before parting ways with a supervisor, and delving into the process of teaching ethical practices. Learn how to create effective remediation plans and manage situations when a supervisee doesn't live up to expectations. Whether you're a seasoned mental health professional or just starting your journey, listen in. Let’s make a difference in the mental health field together.
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.
Are you ready to transform your career in mental health? I've got exciting news about free webinars for Texas counselors and our Counseling Grant Giveaway - over $1,000 in practice grants for those serving rural and underserved communities!
But that's not all. We'll also be unpacking the OER triad, discussing the importance of having a solid remediation plan before parting ways with a supervisor, and delving into the process of teaching ethical practices. Learn how to create effective remediation plans and manage situations when a supervisee doesn't live up to expectations. Whether you're a seasoned mental health professional or just starting your journey, listen in. Let’s make a difference in the mental health field together.
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.
with a good supervision experience. You will have regular formal evaluation because you got to know how you're doing right. Are you meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, failing to meet expectations? Hi, I'm Dr Kate Walker. I'm a marriage and family therapist practice owner and professor of counselor education who took a passion for training the next generation of mental health providers and turned it into a multi six-figure business that designs the courses that teach mental health providers how to be clinical supervisors, teaching graduate students and seasoned counselors.
Speaker 1:I've learned about the fears Fears about failing quitting toxic work environments where you're seeing 80 clients a week. Fears about starting a private practice running out of money, getting in trouble by the licensing board, the IRS, you name it. I created the Texas counselors creating badass businesses community so mental health providers like you could have a step-by-step guide and learn actionable steps to achieve the security, freedom and satisfaction of a counseling career you'll love. Look, you had the dream to become a mental health professional. You got the degree, you took the exams, you put in the time. Whatever your business is a private practice. Maybe you want to sell courses, like I do. You're adding clinical supervision. You want to write a book or get paid to speak? Whatever it is, you are too important to your community to lose, to getting in trouble, giving up, going broke and burning out. Are you ready to break through those fears once and for all? I thought so. Let's get to work.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Texas counselors creating badass businesses, where it's all about working smarter, not harder. And here's your host, dr Kate Walker, who owns too many slip-on shoes.
Speaker 1:Hey badass, I know you don't have time to sit in on another boring, outdated webinar for your counseling continuing education, so I wanted to make sure you know about the best deal going in Texas counselor continuing education Free webinars at Kate Walker Training. Best of all, every webinar is presented after 5 pm. It's completely free and every webinar meets the new Texas rule mandating that 50% of CEs come from a designated provider. The free webinars are presented by real people, facilitated by yours truly, and there is always an opportunity for Q&A. Here's what we have coming up in the next four months. October 25th, I'm presenting a webinar for the supervisor Curious, scared of becoming a clinical supervisor. Attend this webinar and help me get you over your fears and out into the field where you can multiply the difference you make in underserved Texas communities by becoming a clinical supervisor. November 30th, dr Lisa Wines will present Bridging the Gap from Grad School to LPC Associate. This is one of our most popular webinars and I invite professors to tune in with your entire classroom of counseling students. Also in November, you can start applying for our Counseling Grant Giveaway. Last year we gave away over $500 in grants and this year I'm matching that, so we'll hopefully be giving away $1,000 in practice grants to counselors and supervisors serving rural and underserved Texans.
Speaker 1:Need the recording because you can't make it? Don't worry, step it up members. Get the recording converted into an online course that they can take whenever they like. That's right on your schedule. You're the one working your butt off getting your house ready for the high, holy days, school plays, fafsa applications, sats and football season all while trying to return all the calls and emails because, well, you're a business owner. So I'm going to make it easy for you. Just go to wwwkatewalkertrainingcom. Forward slash free webinar and you can sign up and start attending free training that fits into your life and your schedule. That's wwwkatewalkertrainingcom. Forward slash free webinar. You're too important to lose because you paid too much for courses with tempting titles, sat through boring live trainings and got suckered into live, disorganized webinars. It's time to take the next step in your counseling career. Go to wwwkatewalkertrainingcom. Forward slash free webinar and sign up for our next free webinar. Now let's get to work. Hey everybody, welcome to our Tuesday training.
Speaker 1:Now, today's training is very, very nichey. So I get it. If you are not a supervisor, you are probably not interested in a remediation plan, but let me peak your interest a little bit. If you're a graduate student and you're thinking what is this remediation plan she's speaking of? Or if you're an associate and you're like I have never had a remediation plan, or could my supervisor give me a remediation plan. Or you're thinking about becoming a supervisor and you're thinking, okay, I really really want to protect my license, I really don't want to go down in flames because of one of my supervisors' mistakes All of those things can make learning about a remediation plan Super super interesting. Okay, probably not as interesting as UT beaten Alabama this week, but still super super interesting. So I'm going to go over that today how to do a remediation plan. I'm going to talk about a process called the OER triad. Oer triad this is the best practices for supervisors. So you're going to get the picture of how to do remediation.
Speaker 1:If you're in the Texas supervisor coalition, you have access to this. We put a lot of documents in the Texas supervisor coalition. Also, if you're in the Step it Up membership already which if you're watching this, you should be or if you're listening to this on a replay or the podcast, you can always get in on that and I'll tell you more about that later. But you guys have access to all of this because, hey, you're a lucky Step it Uper, and that's what we do for you guys. We make sure that you have all the paperwork that you need, along with the CEs and trainings like this. So if you're watching me live awesome I will keep checking over here for questions. If you are joining me on a replay, then bless you, because you are taking time out of your busy day to listen to this training, either on the treadmill or you're sitting at your computer. You do you. I'm just glad you're here. So let's get into it. All right, so here is your orientation remediation, termination.
Speaker 1:So remediation is a process by which your supervisor tells, or teaches, or reteaches hopefully, a concept to a supervisor. Now, we didn't invent the word remediation. Remediation is used from industries where the oil and gas. We're going to remediate this process. We're going to remediate this pipeline. We're going to remediate this person. So this is definitely not just the clinical supervision arena. But what makes this word important is that it appears in the LPC rules. Now, not everything appears in the rules, so when we find a word that's literally written in the rules, we've got to pay attention. So when it's in the rules. We know there are consequences. We know that investigations and complaints can happen If it's not in the rules. That's when we talk about best practices in groups like Texas Supervisor Coalition, texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses the podcast Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, your regional networking group. I see so many of you guys in the DFW consulting groups, the El Paso consulting groups. You have so many wonderful people around you to consult with and that's how we get together and create best practices when there's no rule. Ok, having said all of that, put it aside, because we literally have a rule for this In LPC and LMFT rules.
Speaker 1:It states if you're a supervisor, you must document a remediation plan before you terminate your supervisor. Now, if your supervisor is doing something egregious fill in the blank what kind of things could be egregious? Things where the client is an imminent harm. If you're supervising, you're listening to this and you're doing something egregious and thinking well, my supervisor is just going to remediate me. Yeah, no, think again. Not only are they going to fire you, they're going to report you to the board. So, as supervisors, we know that our supervisors, especially our level one supervisors, are going to do things because they lack experience. They lack knowledge. They just got the job, they're new to the business.
Speaker 1:So we have a process where it starts with an orientation. This is a teachable moment. When you are entering a new supervision practice. Your supervisor is going to teach you things like OK, this is how I want you to contact me in case of an emergency, here's how we are going to process payments together. Here's how you're going to reschedule if you have to miss a supervision. So orientation is going to take you through the process of teaching you how your supervisor does supervision.
Speaker 1:Now, if you have concepts that you don't know, so if you're going with the supervisor, who's a couples specialist and you are not a couples person yet, but you hope to be this is where the supervisor will teach you things about couples, maybe how to work with couples surviving in fidelity, or working with couples where one partner is suffering with addiction. Ok, so you got orientation. That's when we teach it, because E evaluation happens periodically At least it should. With a good supervision experience, you will have regular formal evaluation, because you got to know how you're doing Right. Are you meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, failing to meet expectations? You can't evaluate it if you never taught it. So the orientation is your way. Now I'm talking to you supervisors. It's your way to make sure you are teaching right, the initial teaching moment for your supervisor, because if you go to evaluate them and they don't meet expectations, but you've never taught it, well, that's on you, supervisor. Ok, so we have orientation, teach it Evaluation. We're going to check to see if they understand the material that you have taught them.
Speaker 1:Now here's where remediation comes in, because remediation happens when you have to reteach something and reteach something and reteach something. Or perhaps you notice some troublesome behaviors on the part of your supervisee, right, they're not quite getting the ethics behind good boundaries. Or perhaps they're just asking the same questions over and over and over again. Or you notice that they're not completing documentation in a quality or a timely manner. So those types of things. You go back and you go to the orientation, think, ok, did I teach that? Yeah, you taught it. Evaluation did I evaluate it? Well, yeah, they're not meeting expectations. So this is the second evaluation where they're still not meeting expectations. Well, now this is leaving you open to liability, right, and that's what this is all about protecting your license and protecting the clients.
Speaker 1:So remediation starts with a plan. Now here's the plan that Dr Judy Detrude and I created years ago. This was in response to a real live situation that I had with a supervisee who wouldn't do the things right. So I would say, hey, you really should not meet your clients in a public location. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that. You know you really shouldn't get your client a job. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was just this one time. Well, I was a new supervisor and I was inexperienced and I didn't really know a lot about remediation. So after that, that was blah my head. I still kind of have trauma from that. So we developed the remediation plan.
Speaker 1:So let's take a look at this and for those of you who are listening on the podcast, you know I'm going to walk you through this. So this is a piece of paper. This is a formal document because, remember, the rule says documenting the remediation plan is the important part, right? We want to make sure that this is a formal, written document. So let's take a look. We've got the date. This is the date you will confront your supervisee, you will introduce the idea of remediation, we have the supervisee's name and then there's a big box for the issue. Now, I did this on a Word document because you may need a little bit more room than this. You know, I know that some forms will say use the back of the page if needed, or use another sheet of paper if needed. Well, I just made a big box. So, however you do, you just make sure you are very detailed about what's going on here.
Speaker 1:Now, if you have been in any of my classes before, you know I talk about, you know you can't remediate this person just bugs me, or you can't remediate, I just get irritated when they're in the room. This is when you really need to have honed your specific, measurable, trackable, realistic, all of those smart goals, because these behaviors need to be observable. If they are breaking a rule or in danger of breaking a rule, you put the rule here, you put the code here. You'd be very, very specific about what they're doing, how often they're doing it, how you have taught them and re-taught them. Document that they had an orientation, document that they failed to meet expectations on a previous evaluation Because, remember, you can't remediate it if you haven't evaluated it. Unless two things they are so freaking brand new they haven't even had a chance to have an evaluation yet. Or, number two, it's egregious and we're just going to skip this whole process anyway.
Speaker 1:The initial remediation that's what we're going to talk about first. Now, my remediation plan includes a strike two. This is the strike one, if you will, the initial remediation. I'm looking at four boxes. There's room to list four specific activities.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest problems that I see with remediation, when I'm consulting with supervisors, is they say okay, you're late to your client session. The first thing on your remediation plan is don't be late anymore. That's a true thing, but that's actually an outcome of the remediation plan. We want a new supervisor who no longer shows up late to session. So how are you going to drive that home? Well, you're going to tell them to attend a three CE course on the ethics behind being on time. You're going to have them write a paper on why it's important to be on time. You're going to have them perhaps look at old YouTube video of a previous board hearing where maybe someone well, I know the complaints hearings aren't up in any more, but you could have your supervisor you download the board minutes where you can see the public documents for folks who are doing things that are getting them in trouble.
Speaker 1:It's sweater weather and while we may still have a few days in the 90s here in Texas. I'm going to put my Uggs on anyway, even if I have to turn on the fan when I'm watching UT kick Alabama's butt on the big screen in the neighbors down the street. What's better than sweater weather? How about taking the next step in your counseling career and getting your clinical supervisor designation? We all know that counselors need quality continuing education courses full of great information that will help them build their career, protect their license, grow a practice and stay out of trouble. Oh and bonus points at the course is not boring and outdated, but the real barrier to finishing a course that could lead to your supervisor designation. You, my bad ass, are busy saving the world with excellent therapy.
Speaker 1:So for you to get the training to improve your practice and your skill set while still caring for people, your choices are compromise your work week life balance with overwhelming, boring, outdated online courses, or pay for a live training. But if you have to miss work to travel, then you just doubled the cost of that course. Let me make it easy for you. I host the only online 40 hour LPC LMFT supervisor training that can lead to the supervisor designation in Texas, and in the month of October, I'm giving you the two hour 2023 rules review, with the latest update, as a bonus when you purchase that course from me. The rules review is not available to the general public for purchase, but you get it free when you purchase the 40 hour supervisor training in October.
Speaker 1:Want to see if you're eligible for your supervisor designation? It's easy Just go to katewalkertrainingcom. Forward slash 40 STC. That's katewalkertrainingcom. Forward, slash the number 40. So a four and a zero STC. I'm going to say it one more time Katewalkertrainingcom. Forward slash four, zero STC.
Speaker 1:The idea, though, is to have an assignment with the beginning and a middle and an end, so that you're in next to the big box where you're listing this. You can have a completion date, which it's great if you want to collaborate with your supervisor and say okay, I know you're busy. How does three weeks sound? Well, three weeks is still. I need a little bit more time. Okay, let's do four weeks. So we type in you're going to have this done. Let's say October 12th, and what's the assignment? And, for those of you who are listening, I'm just typing in write a paper about being on time, is this? And then you have a box for check Was it completed or minus? No, it was not.
Speaker 1:So come up with three or four of these, enough for your supervisor to understand the seriousness of what's happening. Y'all, a remediation plan is serious. It means you're kind of one step away from termination. So you need to take this seriously. And if what I'm assigning you is cramp in your style, a little bit supervisey, then we may not be a good fit, right, that's also kind of that. Well, you know what? It's not you, it's me, or it's not me, it's you. The remediation plan really puts into concrete your expectations for an excellent supervisey who will become an excellent practitioner. So if you're listening, optional additional remediation plan this is your strike two.
Speaker 1:So if your supervisor does not complete the initial remediation, yeah, include something else, or perhaps they completed it, but you're just not confident that they have the concept yet that you're trying to reteach. Well, put in an additional assignment here, now the verbiage for the final part of the agreement. This is, for me, right. If you want to go in and find a remediation plan and put something in that's a little less harsh, you do you. But this is for me. I say I understand, I must and this is the supervisor's voice I understand I must complete the initial and additional remediation slash follow-up plan set forth by my supervisor. In my failure to do so will be grounds for termination of the supervisory relationship, possible termination of my contract employment, because if in Texas, if you're not supervised, you cannot see clients. But there's no grace period, no supervision, no clients and notification of the appropriate licensing board of my activities.
Speaker 1:Now this doesn't mean you can't report your supervisee. Of course you can. But if your supervisee fails remediation, you might want to let the board know and say, hey, this person's on rail to an ice here. I mean, that's really up to you, depending on the severity what they're struggling with. I mean, if they're just struggling with anxiety or I don't know I'm trying to think of something that's not quite as serious that may just be between you and their site supervisor, whoever you want to discuss that with. But if it's something serious and you're given this person a chance to get their act together and they're just not able to, then you might want to consider letting the board know, just as a rule, or in the rules.
Speaker 1:It mentions nothing about having to file this remediation plan with the board, right, it simply says the remediation plan must be documented If you feel your supervisee doesn't have the skills to do their job. So before you terminate, you must remediate. So then I get my supervisee's signature and, of course, my signature, and I make a copy, I give one to the supervisee, I keep one, it goes into their file and we schedule our next meeting. I mean, there are a lot of things that you can do for a remediation plan, including make them come to more supervision at their expense. Like I said, this is serious and it has to be something that you have taught before and you have evaluated before, unless it's egregious or it's such a spanking new, brand new level one newbie supervisee that you just haven't had time to evaluate it. So that's even more serious. Right, because you're wanting to get them off on the right foot and it just happens to be a remediation plan.
Speaker 1:So let's review. We've got the OER triad orientation, remediation and termination. And if you still haven't taken a 40 hour training, look for this. Right, there's nobody out there vetting supervisor courses. If you're going to a supervisor training and they say they are going to teach remediation, but they don't really teach remediation or they don't explain orientation or how to create a supervision plan. Right, because that's really what we're talking about when we talk about orientation. It's your supervision plan. Then you've got plenty of time. Keep looking. Look for a 40 hour training that's going to teach you the process of remediation, because this is all together. Remediation isn't just this plan. Okay, remember, it's your responsibility to maintain and monitor the relationship between you and your supervisor. So take the time, do it right. So, if you have questions, ask me. I'll give everybody a chance.
Speaker 2:All right, clarissa do you have any questions for me? Hi there, sorry, I was running late to your meeting With the remediation plan. I just caught the tail end of that. I was just curious to see what format you had and whether it was something that needed to be reported to the board, and I'm sorry you probably already-.
Speaker 1:No, that's a really good question because it can be confusing.
Speaker 1:So this is your call, right? If it's something egregious, right. So let me kind of take it to our level one supervisee. You're gonna be with your level one supervisee through all of their firsts and if they make mistakes, you are able to correct that, hopefully without contacting the board. Now, that's not in every case, right. And of course, if they do something where maybe it's not egregious but you're like you know, I really do need to report this to the board, then yeah, go ahead and do that.
Speaker 1:But what the remediation plan is, it's between you and your supervisee, it's something like you know. I notice you keep asking that question again and again, and again and it looks like on your last evaluation you were really struggling with reflecting content and meaning during your sessions and I looked at the recording and you really seem to be freezing up. So, dot, dot, dot, we're gonna do this remediation plan. So, no, as a rule it does not have to start or end with the board. It really just can be sort of an intense teachable moment. But, as I did mention, you know, if you get to the end of the remediation plan and they're still not getting it and you feel like you need to terminate with that supervisee, then, yeah, you might wanna write a letter to the board and let them know. Look, I've terminated with this person and here's why. And there is space on the upgrade paperwork, because if you wanted to document their hours right, you don't wanna withhold their hours you might even put in the documentation that this person is really struggling with X, y and Z.
Speaker 2:That makes sense thank you, sure, and I guess if you have a general we'll let them for yourself. Like, do you do like a three strikes and you're out, kind of thing for termination, or is it really just case by case?
Speaker 1:and how gracious the act is so the remediation plan that all the step-it-uppers have in their Kate Walker training profile. It has two, so strike one, strike two. And the strike two is, you know, for folks who just like, look, I tried to attend this meeting or I tried to get this CE and it's happening a week from now and it's like, okay, okay, you know, we can be flexible. I don't have a strike three because I mean, you know, I was a teacher for so long, you know I'm a parent. I don't know it's like one, two, three magic. Really. All we really do is we look at our kids and go to. You know what happens after. You know, come on. So I don't know me, I both own that.
Speaker 1:But the remediation plan in Yall's profile also was a Word document. So if that's not your style, you can do whatever you like. But one thing I do want you to stick to is making sure you have a firm completion date, making sure that these are things you can check, not just say, hey, I need you to get your notes in on time or hey, I need you to show. I mean, obviously that's the outcome we want, but the remediation plan is something you need to document. They failed this, they failed this. They failed this or accomplished it, yes. Oh. And let me mention one more thing too. So let's say you had an evaluation, let's say they did a great job on the remediation plan, and then you did another evaluation two months later and they're still terrible at it, right? So then you can say, look, this just isn't working out. I'm not the supervisor for you, I'm terminating you. And if they came back and said, hey, this supervisor terminated me, it affected my job, my livelihood and I want to file a complaint, you could show the board. Hey, look, I've tried a remediation plan with this person. Here are the three evaluations that we did. Here's a record of all the times we discussed this rule and this issue. Boom, drop the mic.
Speaker 1:And really, that supervisee doesn't have a leg to stand on. And on the flip, if you're a supervisee and you're like, oh my gosh, my supervisor just fired me, I don't know why, well, now you know they should have remediated you. They should have given you an opportunity where you could show that you were starting to master those skills. Hey, badasses, we can all agree that counselors want a path to a successful counseling career, but that means you have to find quality training. That's not even the real barrier. The real problem is a lot of information can be overwhelming and you my bad ass are busy.
Speaker 1:So you're probably asking yourself how can I improve my practice while still caring for people? How do I grow my skill set, become a supervisor without losing my work-life balance? How do I find quality training that won't cost too much time and money From line counselors who want a successful counseling career, value the goal of growing their skill set and even becoming a supervisor, but, at the same time, struggle with finding time to attend quality courses? Counselors can't overcome this barrier because so many times, courses with tempting titles over promise and underperform. Let me ask you something what if there were courses that delivered exactly what they promised, that didn't take a lot of time and didn't break the bank? That's exactly the kind of course we design at Kate Walker Training. I specialize in helping you grow your skill set and career with quality courses on demand, and we have so many to choose from.
Speaker 1:If you're asking yourself, where do I go if I want to sustain my practice and grow my marketing presence? Well, check out the Step it Up membership. What do you do if you're ready to pay it forward and add streams of income. Well, check out the supervisor training, see if you're eligible. If you're looking for an experience that's more hands-on, keep an eye out for open enrollment for bad-ass basics and our exclusive mastermind groups. I'm Dr Kate Walker. Thank you so much for listening to Texas Counselors Creating Bad Ass Businesses. Thank you to Ridgely Walker for her lovely voiceovers at our introduction and do me a favor when you get a second, please like, share and subscribe and write us a review. That's really how we get picked up by other RSS feeds and we get this information out to the mental health bad-assists who need it Once again and keep saving the world with excellent therapy.