Supervisors play an integral role in helping staff manage and address STS. Supervisors have the most intimate knowledge of their staff’s cases compared to others in the organization and, therefore, are more aware of the level of trauma exposure that their staff may be encountering.
Because supervisors typically have frequent contact with staff such as during supervision and/or staff meetings, supervisors are in a position to notice changes in staff’s affect and behavior that may be attributed to work-related trauma exposure.
One of the important roles of a supervisor is to provide support, including emotional support, when staff members experience work-related distress. Research has shown that the quality of the supervisory relationship as perceived by the practitioners was significantly correlated with the level of STS.7
Another role of a supervisor is to advocate for their staff. Supervisors often get pressure from administrators for their staff to take on more cases, be more productive, and/or to meet other agency requirements. When supervisors see that their staff are being negatively impacted by work-related trauma exposure and other stressors, part of their job is to mitigate these stressors by advocating for their staff.
Supervisors are also teachers for their staff. In addition to teaching and modeling job-related skills, they can also teach and model adaptive ways of coping with STS. Supervisors who are overwhelmed by their own STS reactions will have difficulty providing effective support and assistance to their staff. Supervisors need to be aware of their own warning signs of STS and to enact strategies to mitigate STS so that it does not get in the way of their job. In doing so, they can serve as role models for their staff and also normalize that STS can impact all of us.
Because supervisors play such a key role in addressing STS and no formal guidance existed as to what supervisors should do to support staff dealing with STS, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network developed the “Core Competencies for Secondary Trauma-Informed Supervision.”8 These core competencies include benchmarks with specific strategies for supervisors to implement to increase their competence in providing STS-informed supervision. The core competencies were adapted in 2022 to be more relevant to supervisors in multidisciplinary settings such as child advocacy centers.9
The STS-Informed Supervision Rating Tool and implementation strategies included in this domain are based on this resource.
Secondary Traumatic Stress-Informed Supervision: Key Components
- Consistency: Supervision should be held consistently to promote a sense of safety and predictability. Supervision should occur at a set time and day and supervisors should do their best to keep these appointments. Supervisors should also be accessible to staff for support or guidance as needed.
- Clear expectations: Expectations related to supervision for both staff and supervisors should be clearly established and considering the needs of the individual staff member.
- Frequency: In some agencies this may be different for different levels of staff or for staff in different roles. Dalton found that the quantity (the number and hours) of non-evaluative supervision was related to lower levels of STS. Therefore, frequent supervision (e.g., once per week or twice per month) is generally recommended, especially for newer staff.10 Regular meetings between front-line staff and their supervisors are critical to preventing the accumulation of stress.
- Content: The content of supervision should not be all administrative in nature but must include time and space for processing the impact of the work. Supervision should allow both for reflection and skill-building around coping with trauma exposure.
- Supervisor qualities: Supervisors should be knowledgeable, collaborative, flexible, nonjudgmental, validating, and supportive.