Using Training in Reflective Supervision to Drive Trauma-Informed Change in Early Childhood Settings
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
3:45 PM - 4:30 PM
Reflective Supervision (RS) has long been considered a gold standard supervisory approach given its ability to heighten reflective capacity, promote well-being, and reduce psychological distress among professionals who work with young children and their families. The effects of RS reverberate from the professional outward, through more sensitive and attuned interactions with families and greater fidelity to evidence-based practices, ultimately leading to positive outcomes for children. This approach may be especially important in organizations that serve families experiencing significant adversity, where rates of secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, burnout, and turnover are high, and service delivery is often negatively impacted. Despite the substantial benefits of RS for professionals and families alike, many professionals do not have access to RS. This is due, in large part, to lack of training for supervisors in how to deliver RS to their staff. Our team created a professional development series designed to train supervisors across settings (e.g., home visiting, child welfare, early care and education [ECE]) in RS. We rigorously evaluated the RS series, and in one setting—ECE—we also investigated whether participating in the series helped supervisors embody and enact Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s six principles of trauma-informed care. This presentation will introduce the RS series and share findings related to its feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness in multiple settings, as well as strategies for implementation success. We will emphasize results from secondary qualitative analysis of interviews with 11 ECE supervisors who participated in the series, demonstrating that RS may serve as an effective vehicle for organizations seeking to adopt a system-wide approach to trauma-informed care. Attendees will gain insight into how training in RS contributes to primary and secondary prevention of trauma and trauma-related consequences, and will leave with key takeaways to spark their own advocacy, implementation, and evaluation efforts.