How can you create a supportive environment for your supervisee?

1 Establish rapport

The first step to create a supportive environment is to establish rapport with your supervisee. Rapport is the quality of the relationship that allows trust, respect, and understanding to develop. You can build rapport by showing genuine interest in your supervisee, using open-ended questions, affirming their strengths and efforts, and reflecting their feelings and perspectives. Rapport helps you to create a safe and comfortable space for your supervisee to share their challenges, successes, and goals.

2 Elicit goals and values

The next step is to elicit your supervisee's goals and values related to their MI practice. This helps you to understand what motivates them, what they want to achieve, and what is important to them. You can elicit goals and values by asking your supervisee to rate their confidence and competence in MI, to identify their learning needs and preferences, and to share their vision of how they want to use MI with their clients. Eliciting goals and values helps you to tailor your supervision and mentoring to your supervisee's needs and interests.

3 Provide feedback and guidance

The third step is to provide feedback and guidance to your supervisee based on their MI practice. Feedback and guidance are essential for learning and improvement, but they need to be delivered in a constructive and respectful way. You can provide feedback and guidance by using the MITI (Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity) tool, which measures the adherence and competence of MI skills. You can also use the OARS (Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries) skills, which are the core skills of MI, to facilitate your feedback and guidance. Providing feedback and guidance helps you to highlight your supervisee's strengths, areas for improvement, and suggestions for action.

4 Promote reflection and self-evaluation

The fourth step is to promote reflection and self-evaluation in your supervisee. Reflection and self-evaluation are critical for developing self-awareness, insight, and confidence in MI. You can promote reflection and self-evaluation by asking your supervisee to review their own MI recordings or transcripts, to identify what they did well and what they could do differently, and to compare their self-assessment with your feedback. You can also use the RISE (Reflective Interactional Supervision Experience) model, which is a structured process of reflection and dialogue between you and your supervisee. Promoting reflection and self-evaluation helps you to foster your supervisee's autonomy, responsibility, and growth.

5 Encourage experimentation and creativity

The fifth step is to encourage experimentation and creativity in your supervisee. Experimentation and creativity are important for enhancing MI skills, adapting to different situations, and finding one's own style. You can encourage experimentation and creativity by inviting your supervisee to try new techniques, strategies, or approaches in MI, to challenge themselves with different scenarios or clients, and to share their experiences and outcomes with you. You can also use the FIDELITY (Feedback, Interpersonal skills, Direction, Empathy, Learning, Integration, Testing, Yielding) framework, which is a comprehensive guide for developing and maintaining MI skills. Encouraging experimentation and creativity helps you to stimulate your supervisee's curiosity, innovation, and satisfaction.

6 Support change and growth

The final step is to support change and growth in your supervisee. Change and growth are the ultimate goals of MI, both for the clients and the practitioners. You can support change and growth by celebrating your supervisee's achievements, acknowledging their challenges, and reinforcing their commitment. You can also use the TTM (Transtheoretical Model) of behavior change, which describes the stages, processes, and outcomes of change. You can use the TTM to assess your supervisee's readiness, willingness, and ability to change their MI practice, and to provide appropriate interventions and support. Supporting change and growth helps you to sustain your supervisee's motivation, confidence, and competence in MI.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?