Reflective supervision: A qualitative program evaluation of a training program for infant and early childhood mental health supervisors

ABSTRACT

Reflective supervision has been promoted as essential to the practice of infant and early childhood mental health. The authors employed a qualitative program evaluation of a four-month reflective supervision training, using focus groups with 34 supervisors from 26 publicly funded infant and early childhood mental health programs. Participants reported the training to be effective and impactful, particularly experiential components. Barriers to implementation included lack of buy-in from administrators, isolation when others in the agency were not familiar with the model, and job demands. Recommendations include adding a collective participation approach to training within agencies to support dissemination and sustainability.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflective supervision
• infant mental health
• child psychotherapy
• mental health services
• qualitative case study
• community mental health

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Olawunmi Akinsilo, MS, for data collection and administrative support; Jennifer Jiang, Elaine Lu, and Parisa Ziarate for transcription of focus groups; Oscar Donoso, PhD, for co-leading the reflective supervision training; Barbara Stroud, PhD, for reflective consultation for the group trainers; Sharon Hudson, PhD, for suggestions regarding reporting of research design; and the participants in the reflective supervision training for sharing their insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding to support reflective consultation for the group trainers was provided by the Stein Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative. The training described in this study was funded through a contract with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

Notes on contributors

Marian E. Williams

Marian E. Williams, PhD, is Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Psychology at the University of Southern California and Program Area Lead for the Early Childhood Mental Health Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Dr. Williams has more than 25 years of experience in infant/early childhood mental health and conducts research related to interdisciplinary training, assessment of young children with mental health and developmental needs, and access to services for underrepresented children and families.

Kristen Joyner

Kristen Joyner, PsyD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California Irvine (UCI). She works primarily at the Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders, an affiliate of UCI, where she provides diagnostics assessment and mental health services to young children and families. She is endorsed as an Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist and Reflective Practice Facilitator II by California Center for Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health.

Tamara Matic

Tamara Matic, PhD, is clinical psychologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where she provides clinical services to infants and young children birth to five years old and is a clinical supervisor for staff and predoctoral and postdoctoral psychology trainees. She also provides training at CHLA and in the community on topics relevant to the birth-to-five population, including training in reflective practice facilitation, and engages in applied research on clinical interventions and supervision.

Patricia P. Lakatos

Patricia P. Lakatos, PhD, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Clinician-Educator) at the University of Southern California and works as a supervisor and clinician in the Early Childhood Mental Health program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Dr. Lakatos is the lead trainer for Child-Parent Psychotherapy at CHLA, and leads the reflective supervision training series for the American Psychological Association-accredited psychology postdoctoral training program.