Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive

160 Supervision Systems to Stay Organized, Protected, and Inspired

• Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor • Season 3 • Episode 160

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What happens when supervision feels overwhelming before it even starts?

In this episode, Dr. Ashley Stevens and I name the invisible administrative weight (hours, paperwork, compliance) and show how structure, not heroics, turns supervision from exhausting to sustainable. With clear systems, even tentative supervisors lead with confidence.

The first trap is assuming that organizing must be complex. Clarity is the ultimate goal, not fancy software and color-coded spreadsheets. A simple planner, onboarding checklist, and shared drive can prevent costly mistakes and protect both you and your supervisees. Add in a few digital aids, like a law app that keeps you compliant across states, and supervision becomes less about scrambling and more about teaching.

Supervision is also protection. Requiring personal malpractice insurance, documenting HIPAA training, and keeping dual copies of every note aren’t busywork. They’re care structures that safeguard both sides. When supervisors model these systems, supervisees learn that professionalism is part of ethics, not bureaucracy.

A smooth supervision process doesn’t just save time; it creates psychological safety and trust. The right systems signal to supervisees that their work and their growth actually matter.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How to use a few key tools (like the Telemental Health Laws app) to stay legally confident.
  • Why onboarding checklists and planners turn chaos into clarity.
  • How to protect yourself and your supervisees with individual malpractice coverage.
  • The simple documentation habits that keep supervision organized and secure.

Ready to turn supervision chaos into calm? Subscribe for more step-by-step playbooks on supervision, ethics, and building organized, sustainable systems that help supervisors lead confidently and clinicians thrive.

If you’re ready to lead with confidence, join the 2026 Supervisor Course waitlist for early access to bonus tools, templates, and fast-track grading. Strengthen your systems today with the free Supervision Onboarding Checklist, and get ongoing CEUs and live coaching inside the Step It Up Membership. You’re not just building a practice, you’re building a legacy.

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.

SPEAKER_00:

All of us make mistakes and all of us forget things, have that backup, have that technology, and bonus points if the supervisee can also get access to it so they can see what it is that they need to do so that it's not just all you monitoring all of this stuff going on.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Bandamas Therapists, building practices in a little bit of working smart, not hard. And here's your host, DK Welcome. Thinking about becoming a supervisor, but already feeling overwhelmed by all the systems and paperwork, I get it. In today's episode, Dr. Ashley Stevens and I are sharing our favorite supervision hacks. Simple, real-world systems that help you work smarter, not harder. If you're starting to picture yourself supervising next year, grab your spot on the Early Bird wait list for the 2026 Supervisor Courses at KateWalkertraining.com slash earlybird. Now let's get to work. And hacks, especially for you if you're a supervisor or thinking about becoming one. One of the things we hear about a lot or we see a lot, you know, we've got people who are on the fence about supervising and somebody's scared them away. And we're like, no, no, no, come back. We want to help you, you know, make a difference in your community by supervising the next generation of counselors and social workers. So come on back. But we are also talking to you, supervisors who maybe have been burned by a supervisee, or you got into supervision and you just got overwhelmed because it is such a different lane than counseling or doing social work. So we want you back too. So if you have started supervising and stopped, or maybe you're hanging on to that designation and you're thinking, oh, when it's the perfect time, you're just you're trying to Goldilocks this thing, right? We want to make this super cozy, nurturing space for you where you'll dive in and get back into supervising. So supervision hacks. Ashley, I went first last time. You go first this time.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I looked this up on my phone to make sure I had it right. So my first hack is an app on your phone called Telememental Health Laws. So I talk a lot about knowing your state laws, particularly when it comes to things like mandated reporting, processes to report, laws about reporting, all of those kinds of things. So this telemental health law app is created by lawyers, and people ask that all the time. Like, have you gotten this clear by a lawyer? Look, do whatever is best for you and yours, okay? But this is an app that was created by a massive law firm that is global and who specializes in mental health specifically. So if you're looking for, you know, I live in Hawaii and I'm about to move to Indiana. What are the rules? Or I want to supervise. I'm from Texas, but I think Vermont is a great state to supervise in. Then you need some information that is really readily available. You have your phone on you all the time. It separates it by individual state and the laws surrounding things with mental health. Now, is it gonna give you specific supervision? Sometimes, sometimes, you know, the bulk law is in there and it touches on supervision, but sometimes it doesn't. So, but the reason I think it's a hack is because I think having readily accessible, very easy, quick ability to look up what's the law say about X, Y, or Z if a supervised Z is asking is unmatched and invaluable. It is such an amazing app. Obviously, things update sometimes. So make sure that you're finding, you know, when you're not on your phone, when you're back on your laptop, that you can find what you need. But it is immaculate when it comes to looking for those rules, looking for the laws in a quick, easy, and all in one place.

SPEAKER_01:

And even if you're thinking, well, I'm never gonna supervise across state lines, I always think the what-ifs. I can't tell you how many times Ashley and I have seen, you know, on the internet and all the social media, hey, my client is traveling to Vermont. Can I still do therapy with them? And so if that's your supervisee and their client is going to Vermont, unless you all are in Vermont, right? You need to know whether or not they can do that. And so that app, I remember that came out like soon after COVID when everybody was wanting to travel around and do therapy. It's great, it's really great. I like that. All right. So my hack is having a planner and an onboarding checklist. So shameless plug. These are things we talk about in the Kate Walker Training Supervisor courses for counselors and social workers. So having just a checklist, this is something you know, you can make your own, but just making sure you get all of these things every single time. And you do a check-in in the middle of the year, you do a check-in right before they're about to upgrade. So everything is just very streamlined. You know, do they have their hours up to date? Do you have all their logs? Are you able to contact their site supervisor or their internal supervisor, like Ashley was talking about in another episode? Do they have multiple sites? Do you have the sites information, which is why you need a planner? You know, it's it's not like this is school where we have a planner and we're going to have curriculum, and every month is going to be different. It's not that kind of a planner, but it's a planner where you can keep track of where your supervisee is, who is supervising them, what are the rules at their site? Can you go take a look at their notes or do you need to sign a HIPAA waiver? And speaking of HIPAA, a planner can help you document, you know, the HIPAA training that you insisted that your supervisee take. Because, supervisor, that is one of the things I absolutely recommend that you do with all of your supervisees, unless they can show you their own little certificate that says, hey, I understand HIPAA, you give them your own training or send them to somebody else. But making that a part of your onboarding checklist and then making sure that you every year see that they get their HIPAA training. And yes, if you're asking me, does HIPAA come along and say, hey, you have to be HIPAA trained every year? No, HIPAA doesn't say that. Is that a best practice? 100%. So I hope your brain is kind of churning here about all of the cool, wonderful trainings you could require of your supervisee, even if your state doesn't say that they have to have continuing education. I mean, and you know, insisting that they take a telemental health course, just a short one, not an expensive one, but just to understand the ins and outs of telemental health, because their university, if they did give them a training, Ashley talked about this before. Not all programs are different. Not all people pay attention in class. So you're getting this person who may be delivering 90% of their services via mental telemental health, and they've never had a class in it. They they don't understand the ins and outs or what to do if you look on camera and your client is having a heart attack, right? Then what? So a planner and an onboarding checklist. That's me. All right, Ashley.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I'm gonna piggyback and and shift it a bit. My second hack is use technology, use whatever you have access to to help yourself out. If you are a hand jammer, if everything, if you want to go super low tech with it, have at it. Do whatever feels best for you. But using technology, and for me, as someone who had at the highest quite a few supervisees, but again, that's what I was doing all day, every day was supervision, but across multiple states, tracking and being able to monitor where people were, what they were working on, what they needed was really, really important. And using something as simple as like an Excel sheet or Google Drive where they can actually contribute and have an ongoing log or whatever it is that you want is the thing that saved me innumerable times. So in some of my states, there are things like six-month reviews that you're required to do and turn in more states than I wish. And it's just because it's a lot more work on us to do. But when we were talking about specifically in Kate Walker training, when we were talking about those OERs, the evaluation, the orientation, being able to track, okay, when did we turn in our paperwork so that if the board loses it, I know when that supervisee finished up everything, got their packet together, and sent it off. I can track, okay, I want my first evaluation to be three months in or six months in or whatever. I put the date and then I am a nerd, so I conditionally format it to turn red when it's within the month that that needs to happen in. If there are things like six-month reviews or yearly reviews or whatever else that the board may require in whatever state you're in, I document that. And if you lose those dates, I have, and this is, you know, I didn't bring it up in the in the top mistakes, but in one of the states, I had a supervisee get really confused about the dates that they needed to do something in. And it caused their license to lapse. Now, whose fault was that necessarily? I think it was some confusion on the board's part. I think it was some missed opportunities for me and some missed opportunities for the supervisee. But ultimately, it caused a problem that all of us had a hand in getting that technology to help you when your memory isn't the strongest because maybe you have other clients or you're teaching or you have a side gig at the bodega down the street, whatever it is, like use the resources that you have available to help you. And maybe you don't need it, maybe you have a mind like a still trap, but all of us make mistakes and all of us forget things, have that backup, have that technology and bonus points if the supervisee can also get access to it so they can see what it is that they need to do. So that's not just all you monitoring all of this stuff going on.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm so glad you talked about a shared drive and just making sure that your supervisee can access that. I know for me, I had a Dropbox folder called Supervisees Bring to Supervision Every Week. Like that, it was just a super long name, but I never wanted anybody to be confused about what they needed to bring me every week. So, yeah, all of that. So I hope as you're listening, you're starting to hear, yeah, this is a lot different from counseling, but I also hope you're starting to hear that it's so doable. It really is doable. And there is a simple way to get it done and to build the systems you need. Quick pause. If you're ready to lead with confidence in 2026, get on the wait list for my brand new supervisor course. Early birds get bonus tools and my favorite supervision templates. Head to KateWalker Training.com slash earlybird to join now. So my second hack is a short one, but it's one that I think a lot of supervisors get confused about with their supervisee because you'll have supervisees who work at sites that will provide their malpractice insurance. Okay, well, if you think that all the way through, what's really happening is your supervisee is going to be covered by an umbrella of a, you know, 1 million, 3 million, 3 million, 5 million, whatever it is, insurance, malpractice insurance policy. And so if you take that and divide it by the 25 people who work there, at the end of the day, that's not a lot. It's not a lot of coverage, and it leaves you and your supervisee kind of raw and open to stuff if things go south. So easy hack here is to require your supervisee to have their own personal malpractice insurance. It's not that expensive. We are not anesthesiologists and heart surgeons who are going to play pay thousands and thousands of dollars for malpractice insurance. What we do is as important, I think, as those professions. So don't get me wrong about that, but requiring a new counselor or social worker to get their own malpractice insurance is absolutely my number one hack, even though I listed it at number two. And then use your planner, you know, whether it's a paper planner or a digital planner to track the date that malpractice insurance expires. That was one of the most, you know, it felt really good to be able to sit with my supervisees and say, oh, hey, Jane, I noticed that this is the month your malpractice insurance expires. So I need you to upload a new certificate to our shared Google Drive. And I need you to do that by, you know, January 25th. And if they don't have that done, well, that's I may have consequences, you know, ranging from, okay, you need to do it right now while I'm watching you, to I don't want you to see clients until you get this certificate up to date and get your malpractice insurance. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

My number three is a little bit also of a shameless plug. I take a course that gets you ready. And this is obviously for people who aren't supervisors yet. There's a lot of courses out there, there's a lot of information out there, and there's a lot of people that don't actually prepare you. They may prepare you in abstract and like all of these things could happen. But having the ability to finish this course with paperwork that you can use, with templates that you can use, with information you can use on day one, and to build those systems and to build those practices that keep you a solidified, happy, healthy, well supervisor, I think is unmatched in our Kate Walker training. And that is why we built it the way that we built it. We want to make sure that you have tangible resources that you can take with you. I felt like great, I have all this information, but I don't really know how to get started. And I don't know the first step to do so. And I think that having a course that prepares you for the work is so important. And so get yourself an amazing Kate Worker training course that actually gives you those resources so that you are 10 steps forward the minute that you graduate the course rather than feeling like me, a little lost in the sauce. I don't think that's a shameless plug at all.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's just fact and I love it. And if you are a supervisor, we'll join one of our you know monthly workshops. We have monthly live virtual workshops where we do case consultation, we bring in a speaker, we don't record the darn thing because we want everybody to feel free and open to ask questions. So yeah, we we give so much support. And so the last hack for me, because I don't want to overshadow taking the course, take the course, take the course. One of the things we do teach, and it's a huge part of our supervision courses, are systems, obviously, because we're talking about systems, but making sure that your supervisees leave with a copy of everything. Whether your state requires you to have something in your agreement about what happens if you terminate your practice or if you pass away or something happens to you or not. You need to have something that helps your supervisees not get hung out to dry if something happens to you. I've seen so many cases in front of our licensing boards here where the supervisor has unfortunately passed away and the supervisee can't access their notes or they can't access the logs that are required by the state to give evidence that they they can upgrade. Right. Because if you aren't around to sign that paperwork and you know, submit it to the board, you know, they can't, at least in Texas, there's not a whole lot people can do about that. So one remedy, and this hack is is, I think, one of the best ones we have, is just making sure that your supervisee leaves with a copy of the notes. So if they're handwriting notes, and then you look at the note, you say, Yep, that's everything I talked about. I'm gonna sign it, you sign it, you throw it onto this. I don't know, do they have scanners anymore? Or take a picture of it on your phone. I don't know. But somebody gets a digital copy and somebody gets the real copy, and everybody, when they at the end of the day, has a copy of everything. So you don't even need to worry about it if at least you may have more to worry about, but you won't need to worry about that if something happens to you and your supervisee is left, right? Because they'll have all the evidence they need to do their upgrade. And yes, we do teach that in the Kate Walker Training supervisor courses. So yeah, those are my three hacks.

SPEAKER_00:

Ashley, you got any more? I think that's it. Probably more for sure, but all that's on the top of my head. And I think what we've given is just such a good foundation for starting the process and getting out there and starting to help in our hugely needful communities, rural or urban, across the country. I mean, this is something that is, you know, for all of the things that are going on in the world, there are more and more mental health clinicians getting put out into the field who are unprepared, who are unknowledgeable, who don't know the first thing about what they're doing. We need supervisors, we need you. And it's really fun. I don't think Kate or I would be uh doing this if it wasn't also a lovely mix of impactful and really cool and really fulfilling and really inspiring to launch these supervisees out into the world and watch them just take life by the horns. It's incredible. And we would love to have you on the journey.

SPEAKER_01:

And I feel the same way. And helping uh raise these folks into your colleagues, I I know it's like I'm talking about raising chickens. No, helping these folks become your colleagues, it doesn't have to add 10 more things to your plate. And I hope that if you listen to these episodes and check out our other ones, you know, things I wish I knew before I started supervising and the top mistakes supervisors make. One of the things I hope we leave you with is this desire to have an amazing supervision experience to create an amazing supervision experience and the systems and the tools to do so. So happy supervising. Thanks for listening to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive. If you're ready to step into supervision and lead with confidence, the brand new 2026 supervisor courses are coming soon, and early birds get first access to bonus tools, templates, and fast track grading. Join the wait list now at KateWalkertraining.comslash earlybird. And if you want ongoing support, CEs, and live coaching, join our Step It Up membership community at KateWalkertraining.com slash step it up. You're not just building a practice, you're building a legacy. I'll see you next week. If you love today's episode, be sure to leave a five-star review. It helps other badass 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 editing this episode and making us sound amazing. See you next week.