Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive

161 Supervising: What We Wish We Had Known

• Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor • Season 3 • Episode 161

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What happens when supervision feels intimidating, chaotic, or “too big” to take on?

In this episode, Dr. Ashley Stevens and I pull back the curtain on the early days of supervising: what we didn’t know, what caught us off guard, and why becoming a supervisor is more doable (and more meaningful) than it first appears. From unexpected gaps in supervisee education to the business acumen no one warns you about, we break down the essentials every new supervisor needs to hear.

The myth is that supervision unfolds like a tidy classroom with learners who grow at the same pace. The truth? Your supervisees will span ages, backgrounds, life paths, and competencies. This wide range is part of the joy. When supervisors let go of rigid expectations and ground themselves in experience, structure, and curiosity, supervision becomes a collaborative, energizing process rather than something to fear.

Supervision is also leadership. That means stepping into your authority, addressing tough supervisee dynamics directly, and recognizing that you’re not training employees, you’re growing future colleagues and referral partners. The sooner new supervisors embrace clarity, boundaries, and business savvy, the sooner they protect themselves and serve their supervisees well.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why supervisees arrive with wildly different levels of training, and how to meet them where they are.
  • The business mindset every supervisor needs: from money boundaries to the real-world questions supervisees will inevitably ask.
  • How to avoid rookie supervisor mistakes like pigeonholing your niche or over-assuming competence.
  • Why community matters and how joining supervisor networks combats isolation and burnout.

Ready to grow your confidence as a supervisor and develop the next generation of clinicians? Subscribe for more step-by-step conversations on supervision, leadership, and building practices that 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:

I am training these people to be my colleagues. I'm not training them to be my employees, unless you're, you know, you're filling your group practice and you do whatever you want to do. But like, I am creating my referral sources. I'm creating my network. I'm creating my colleagues at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Bandice Therapists, building practices for money. It's all about working smart, not hard. And here's your host, Dr. Kate Wilhelm. When I first started supervising, I made tons of mistakes. And when I asked Dr. Ashley Stevens the question, hey, did you make a lot of mistakes starting out? She said, yes, she did. So we joined forces so that in this episode, we're sharing the lessons we wish we'd known before supervising. What surprised us, what scared us, and what ended up being totally worth it. If you've been curious about supervising and want to sneak peek into what it's really like, join the Early Bird wait list for the 2026 Supervisor Courses at KateWalkertraining.com/slash earlybird. Let's get to work. Welcome to another episode of Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive. And today is for you if you are on the fence about becoming a supervisor, because you should become one. And that's what our aim is, is to get you to want to be a supervisor. And if you are already a supervisor, I think you're going to find these next three episodes kind of intriguing because we are going to talk about things that, you know, new supervisors don't necessarily know. So I am joined today by the amazing Dr. Ashley Stevens, who teaches our social work supervisor course. So welcome, Ashley. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. Glad to be here. So this will be fun because we're talking about what we wish we knew before we started supervising. So I'm I'm gonna go first. So here so here's just a quick story. And I a lot of Texas supervisors can relate to this who are of a certain age because there was a time, once upon a time, in Texas where you only had to be licensed three years and then you could become a supervisor. So and in fact, for LMFT in Texas, you that it that's it. You had three years or three thousand hours. But the point of this is I was not ready at three years of being fully licensed to be a supervisor. So, you know, what I wish I knew was that, you know, I should have waited five years. I should have waited until I've been licensed for longer. Because, you know, as a supervisor, you have to have a handle on things like, oh, I don't know, theories, right? Like you had to be able to be fluent in theories. And it is like a language, you know, because you're helping another person become fluent in theories. And if you don't know the theory, then, you know, it's hard to know if they're doing it right. So there were just, yeah, mine's yeah, Ashley, mine's all related to experience. I just wish, you know, I wish I knew that I should have waited. But how about you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think one of the things that I wish I knew was just how maybe many assumptions that I was making about the education and training of supervisees. I've had a gamut of people who get out of their master's programs and are like, I'm ready to do private practice, I'm ready to own a practice, I'm ready to, you know, tackle the world. And I'm like, oh, I I don't know about that. We'll see, let's assess and and figure out. And then I've had people who've said, and this was like a week ago, I had a supervisee that said, I'm not an LCSW yet. I can't diagnose. And I went, what? Welcome to the world where you get to diagnose. Like, I guess I just assumed that like part of having an MSW was some really commonalities. And what I've come to find the longer and longer I do supervision is that truly every individual program is an individual program. And what these individuals have taken from the program are a party of one too. So your education, your training, your life experience in social work, I feel like there's actually a older population. Generally, we see either people who've been, I'm gonna use air quotes for social work in terms of like they've worked at DSS for a really long time or DPS or whatever you call it in your state, CPS, Child Protective Services, and they've never gotten their master's degree, but they're in their 40s or 50s or 60s, where a lot of like that second career, third career, or just I've been doing this forever and I'm just now going after the master's. So we have like just a wide range. And I think when you come into supervision thinking like it's gonna be this type of person or this stage of person or this age of person or whatever, you're probably wrong. Get used to some really wide-ranging experiences, ages, perspectives, etc.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think a lot of new supervisors think that too. Like it's like it's gonna be a class, like everybody's gonna be at the same place at the same time, and they're all gonna graduate together and it's gonna be so great. And it's yes, no, not like that. No, it's a lot more chaotic. Which is some of the fun, right? Yeah. Well, okay, so what do you feel like? I mean, those are kind of our stories, and and you're you're already hitting on it. I mean, what no one tells you about supervising. And I think, you know, like you're talking about, you know, these the ideas that it's gonna be very homog homogenous versus uh not that, right? That very, very different. I think what nobody tells you about supervision, at least for for counselors, is, you know, well, okay, it's one or the other, right? People are either gonna scare them away by saying, Oh, you're gonna get that terrible supervisee and it's just gonna rock your world and you're gonna wish you weren't doing this and you know it's your license too. Or I get the other end, which is you know, oh, it's they're all wonderful, you know, there's never gonna be a problem. We're just we're all buds, kumbaya, and off we go. So I think what nobody tells you about supervising is you have to kind of put on uh your boss pants, right? And and get your boss coffee mug and understand that that you are in charge. So if you have a difficult supervisee, there's nobody else that's gonna fix it but you. Yeah. And if you have wonderful supervisees, and they're all wonderful, then you need to have the ability to kind of look in the mirror and go, really, are they all wonderful, or am I just not really doing my job and and digging in, you know, and asking right questions? So yeah, what do you think?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. One of the things that I feel like our profession naturally does not great when you transition to things like group practices, things like supervision, is how much business like acumen you truly need. Now, I am not advocating for anyone to go out and get like an MBA on top of everything that we've done, but like reach out to either programs, you know, Yale and MIT have all of these classes that are brand new and free and all of these things, you know, do some research around things like business mindset. Because I feel like one of the things that supervisee or like taking on supervision as a whole, if you're not really settled about like how you take money, how you operate your business, your boundaries, your abilities as a human with all the things you have going on outside of work, you may be swept away. You'll get in over your head about this process because not only are you doing that for yourself, you're creating a separate lane in your business, even if you're not creating a whole new business for supervision, but you're also then teaching them how to do the same thing. So I was kind of like the first time somebody said, How should I set this up? I went, like, oh, that's not me. I'm your clinical supervisor. But it kind of is because I want to make sure that my supervisees not only have the clinical skills that are there about, but they know the pros and cons of running their own business, of working in a group versus a hospital. You know, all of the things that kind of make up like a happy, well functional clinician at the end of this also includes some of those business skills that we may still be kind of hunting and searching for. So I would say, like, make sure you get right and do what you need to do: reflection, mentorship, coaching, whatever that is, taking three classes at the local community college about business, whatever you need to do, but like make sure you're well in your foundation of business acumen before you start trying to do this process. It will help you in the long run, I think, exponentially.

SPEAKER_01:

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 KateWalkertraining.com slash earlybird to join now. I know there are, you know, either supervisors or supervisor wannabes out there right now shaking their head, going, oh no, no, I'm not taking on anybody who wants to have their own business. Okay, well, they're not gonna be with you forever. And so many of the folks we see, maybe they do end up in a in a job that that that they don't love. And they come to you and they say, you know what, I really want to check out this private practice thing. Or maybe they're working in a private practice and the business owner at that practice isn't the best. And they're coming to you with questions, right? And you know, I'm am I being classified correctly, 1099 or W-2? I mean, so you will get asked business questions even if you're working at an agency and supervising's part of your job and you're not collecting money for supervision. It's just the most non-business setting you could possibly be in. You're still going to be asked questions about business because that's what supervisees, they want to know everything. And yeah, even if they they decide they don't want to open their own, or your state doesn't allow that, you know, they're still gonna want to know how to do that at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think that's one of the funny pieces is like I always say, and I kind of alter my brain to make this the forefront, I am training these people to be my colleagues. I'm not training them to be my employees, unless you're, you know, you're filling your group practice and you do whatever you want to do. But like, I am creating my referral sources. I'm creating my network, I'm creating my colleagues at the end of the day. And what I think maybe there is a piece of this of like that's coming to me, which is two years is very short in the long run of things. You know, if you can think back to your master's program and the minute you you entered those doors and sat in that chair, if you weren't at home, sat in whatever chair you you were at for your master's program and you went, oh my gosh, this is gonna be the longest two years of my life. And then you get at the end and you're like, that flew by in a like second. That's the same for them in supervision. Yes, if they're not ready at day one, of course, two years is coming quick. And if you delay that that ability to kind of meet them where they are, if their goal is to open a private practice, well, now you're kind of behind because now you have to like somehow figure out in everything else that's going on that you haven't been working with them around this very important thing that is their goal, that is gonna get them across the line. And, you know, two years, it goes quick, quicker than you think it's gonna go. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's talk about rookie mistakes. And when I say rookie mistakes, I mean rookie supervisor mistakes, because I think this is one of those rookie mistakes, you know, it's like starting off as a brand new counselor and saying, well, I'm never gonna counsel this kind of person or a person with this issue, and that's the person that walks through your door first, you know? But I think that a lot of supervisors start off pigeonholing themselves the same way. Like, oh, no, no, no. I'm a CBT person all the way. I'm never gonna take on somebody that doesn't do CBT. Well, you know what? Maybe. And then what are you gonna do, right? I I know in Texas you're allowed with LPC and LMFT to have two supervisors at the same time. So you could just say, hey, go hire another supervisor to teach you that. But you talk about a paperwork, you know, if you don't like paperwork one-on-one, guess what it's gonna be like when you're trying to coordinate supervision with another supervisor. So, you know, no, you don't have to be a jack of all trades, but just being willing to be open to these things, including private practice, including if somebody wants to come to you or comes to you and says, you know what, I decided I hate play therapy. I don't want to do it anymore, or I know I'm trained as a couple counselor, but I hate couples. So now I want to do something else. So yeah, the rookie mistake for a supervisor would be kind of getting in that locked mindset of I'm only gonna do this or I'm never gonna do that. So way vague.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I love that. And it is something that, like kind of going back to that the beginning here, which is you have maybe you have some control over who you see. And I think it's worth getting into internal versus external supervision here in a minute. But often when people become supervisors and they're marketing and they're trying to find people, it's kind of like with client, your first caseload. You're just like, I'll take anyone. I just need to survive until I can get to the place where I can be a little more specific. So I love that. And and one of the Ricky mistakes that I see is not leveraging the information you have. So some of my favorite supervisors that have come through our course and through the process are those who kind of are these like diamonds in the rough who don't really realize how much information or niche knowledge that they have that they can utilize to get people who want to be like them. And I think maybe there's a piece that comes from this like sometimes the world of therapy feels like a competition rather than collaboration. Like, I'm my town's play therapist, for example, and I don't want anyone to know, you know, all of these skills that I have, because then I'm not gonna have as many clients because they're gonna be spread around town. But one of the things that I encourage people to think about is if you can kind of transition your mind to like, let's say you spend 10 years in your career and you see 50 clients a year, think about the exponential ripple effect of that if you were to have 10 supervisees, one a year over those two years, and each of them also saw 50 people that year. And now you're touching double the amount of people if you're only seeing one supervisee. So, like being able to not only contribute to the field, your niche or your knowledge or whatever, but then like when you have to close, when you have kids, when there is an emergency, or when you want a sabbatical, you have these built-in people that you've trained well to be knowledgeable and experts in the field that you're in. Well, now look at how many resources you have to lean on rather than this isolating, like, I'm the one of me who knows how to do this. So I kind of like think about your history, think about your past, think about your niche, what you specialize in, and just think what it would be like if I had more people who knew that, experienced that, were trained in that, and how much that could help instead of hurt.

SPEAKER_01:

And one of the things Ashley and I will be talking about on another episode in more depth is actually the top mistakes supervisors make. So we're gonna dive into those things. Don't miss that episode. We will dig in. So I think what I want to leave people with, first of all, yes, you should supervise. If uh we haven't made that abundantly clear, yes, you should supervise. And I know one of the things at Kate Walker Training, we want to leave our brand new supervisors with is the port. You know, getting in there, recognizing that, okay, you isolation isolation wasn't good for you as a counselor. Well, it's not good for you as a new supervisor either. And so getting into community, whether it's one of our Facebook pages, we have the Texas Supervisor Coalition, which you don't have to be from Texas to join, communities in your town, communities, I mean a business community if you're trying to, you know, get your back business acumen up. But just staying in community and you can do this, it's such an amazing feeling to raise a supervisee into your colleague. And, you know, when you see them at conferences or when you see them in a network you can eventually and you can really be proud of the people that you're putting out there and the difference that you're making in your community. 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.comslash 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 Ridgley 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.