This module emphasizes the importance of cultural competence and social justice advocacy in supervision.
Effective clinical supervision requires a thorough understanding of culture, diversity, and social justice. Supervisors are entrusted with fostering a supervisory environment that is inclusive, culturally responsive, and attuned to the social and systemic factors impacting both supervisees and their clients.
Supervisors must cultivate not only a sturdy awareness of their own positionality and biases, but also of their supervisees and how their cultural identity, values, and lived experiences shape their perspectives, decision-making, and client work. By fostering an openness to diverse ways of knowing and practicing, supervisors can avoid imposing dominant cultural frameworks, such as a European/white lens, and instead support supervisees in honoring their own cultural values and approaches. This involves understanding the unique needs of supervisees and clients from diverse backgrounds, including considerations related to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, and ability.
This module emphasizes the importance of cultural competence and social justice advocacy in supervision. Participants will examine frameworks for integrating cultural responsiveness into their supervisory practices, ensuring that supervisees develop the skills needed to provide culturally sensitive care. Key topics include exploring power imbalances, addressing microaggressions, recognizing the role of cultural identity and values in supervision and client care, and fostering equity within the supervisory relationship.
Additionally, this module will provide guidance to help supervisors model and support supervisees through various cultural tensions that can arise during supervision. Through both modelling and direction intervention, supervisors can engage supervisees in meaningful discussions about privilege, oppression, the influence of their cultural values and identities, and intersectionality. Supervisors are uniquely positioned to encourage supervisees to not only recognize the influence of these factors in client care, but to act upon them in ways that uphold the profession’s ethical, legal, and moral commitments.
By the end of this module, participants will have a deeper understanding of how to integrate cultural, diversity, and social justice considerations into their supervisory practices. They will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to create a supervisory environment that upholds dignity, respect, and equity, while supporting the professional development of their supervisees and enhancing the well-being of the clients they serve.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, participants should be able to:
- Explain how cultural backgrounds influence the supervisory process, including the perspectives and behaviours of both supervisors and supervisees, and describe strategies for fostering cultural humility to support effective work with diverse clients.
- Examine how intersecting aspects of identity (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status) impact the supervisory relationship and the experiences of supervisees and clients.
- Identify implicit biases that can arise in supervision and develop strategies to address and mitigate these biases to foster an inclusive and equitable supervisory environment.
- Advocate for equity and fairness within the supervisory relationship by integrating social justice frameworks into supervision practices and guiding supervisees in addressing social justice issues in client work.
- Analyze how power, privilege, and oppression manifest in supervisory relationships and develop strategies to address and balance these dynamics in culturally sensitive ways.
Key Concepts
- Biases
- Cultural Awareness
- Culture-Bound Values
- Cultural Humility
- Cultural Identity
- Cultural Sensitivity
- Cultural Identity
- Intersectionality
- Microaggression
- Power
- Privilege
- Racism
- Social Justice
- Social Location