Reflective Supervision | Clinical Supervision | Licensure Supervision | Consultation | Texas | Colorado

What is RS/C?

Within the RS/C process, practitioners are able to examine with a trusting supervisor/consultant the thoughts, feelings, and reactions evoked in the course of working closely with pregnant women, infants, young children, and their families. Over time and with a reliable reflective supervisor/consultant, the experience of RS/C offers practitioners the opportunity to engage in a safe, reliable, and consistent learning relationship. Through this relationship, strengths are supported, and vulnerabilities are partnered (Fenichel, 1992; Shamoon-Shanok, 2009).

A hallmark of RS/C

is the shared exploration of the parallel process. In other words, I RS/C, attention is given to all relationships, including that between supervisor and practitioner, between practitioner and parent, and between parent, and infant/young child. It is critical to understand how each of these relationships affects the others. Thus, RS/C incorporates a process of consciously connecting the lived experience of individuals and their relationships with the lived experience and relationships of others. Simply put, reflective supervisors/consultants become a place and a person with whom practitioners can feel seen, held, and supported.

Contractual Reflective Consultants

Sometimes, an outside contractual consultant is hired to provide RS/C to an individual or group on behalf of the promotion of IECMH. In addition to possessing the knowledge and skills defined in Reflective

Supervision/Consultation that Meets the Criteria for Endorsement®, it is recommended that the consultant be:

• Knowledgeable about the community in which the individual/group provides service

• Fully informed about and respectful of agency policies, regulations, protocols, and rules that govern the

• individual’s or group’s services as well as program standards and specific components of those services

• Knowledgeable and respectful of leadership roles within the agency

• Able to establish positive working relationships with agency personnel

The consultant will engage in reflective case discussions but will discuss administrative content only when it is clearly indicated in the contract. When discussions related to disciplinary action need to occur, it is the direct supervisor (rather than the consultant) who should address such action.

Offering RS/C required for Infant Mental Health Endorsement in person or via distance technology.
Listed on CoAIMH Resource Directory of RS/C providers