AUTONOMY AND IDENTITY

Background Naomi has been in the role of clinical supervisor for the social work department at Build Up, a popular rehabilitation center, for the past 4 months. Prior to this new role, she was a social work case manager, and she has worked with a multidisciplinary team at the rehabilitation center the past 3 years. Additionally, she has 1 year of experience as a licensed clinical social worker. Naomi received her promotion after receiving her clinical license and doctorate in social work. She now manages a caseload of 25 clients in addition to supervision duties.

First Concern

Naomi recently contacted the center director to express her concerns and receive feedback about her feeling that she is not doing a good job as the clinical supervisor. She feels her suggestions and recommendations during the multidisciplinary team meetings are not taken seriously. She reports that her feedback during the meetings is often openly and sometimes disrespectfully dismissed by the other team members and that this contributes to her insecurities regarding successfully serving in her role as clinical supervisor. Naomi is questioning her ability to assert her knowledge and expertise in meetings with the multidisciplinary team, and she is even questioning her choice to pursue the role of a clinical supervisor in general. Second Concern

Naomi also expresses concern with her being able to provide culturally responsive supervision support, as there are several new social workers from diverse racial/ethnic and socio-cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, Naomi has observed the social workers often bring up in supervision the cultural issues they are challenged with regarding client engagement and establishing trust, and further they don't feel they have the cultural knowledge to effectively engage clients in a culturally responsive way. Naomi does not share the same background as those she is supervising and is not sure how to build rapport and gain credibility with the group of people she is supervising.

Third Concern

Naomi also states that she feels overwhelmed with managing her caseload and the 12 new social workers who depend on her heavily to guide them in their clinical practice work with diverse clients. Naomi states she is still developing her confidence in being a clinical supervisor and adjusting to the expectations she feels the leadership has of her due to her new doctoral degree. She says it feels as if she is faking her way through the role of clinical supervisor. She wants her team to be confident in her as a supervisor. Naomi wants the multidisciplinary team to respect her knowledge and expertise and acknowledge that she and her team are valuable members of the center 's rehabilitation team and should be respected as such. After reaching out to express her concerns, Naomi now has a meeting with the center director to receive feedback on these concerns.

Using this case scenario, and respond to the following:

• What issues of concern are presented in this scenario?
• How might these issues impact the supervisor's ability to effectively serve in the role of clinical supervisor?
• Discuss what supervisory skills a new supervisor might needto successfully address the concerns presented in the scenario.
• Analyze what diversity and/or inclusion issues might be relevant in the supervisor's engagement of the staff person.
• Discuss how you might respond to a situation like the scenario if you were the supervisor in this situation.
• What specific skills would you utilize? How might the application of these skills effectively address the issues of concern?