What Your Training Didn’t Teach You About Supervision (But Should’ve)

Let’s be real.

You became a BCBA® because you wanted to do meaningful work. Make a difference. Change lives.

But now? You’re supervising RBTs®, students, and early-career BCBAs®, and some days it feels more like babysitting a to-do list than shaping the future of the field.

You’re checking boxes, completing forms, reviewing task list items...
And yet something feels off.

You’re not alone—and you’re not doing it wrong.
You’re doing it exactly the way you were trained.

But here’s the hard truth:

Your training skipped the most important part.

The Blind Spot No One Warned You About

What if I told you that the biggest risk to your effectiveness as a supervisor isn't lack of technical skill?

It's cultural disconnect.

Not because you don’t care.
Not because you're not "diverse enough."
But because no one taught you how to lead with cultural humility.

They taught you how to build rapport.
They told you to be compassionate.
They might have even tossed in a DEI slide deck or two.

But no one taught you how to decenter your own worldview, make room for lived experience, or lead supervision with cultural humility at its core.

And without it, you're unintentionally building fragile supervision relationships—ones that feel compliant, but not safe. Functional, but not transformative.

Why Cultural Competence Isn’t Enough

Let’s get something straight:
“Cultural competence” is a static skillset.

You learn the basics of someone else’s background, try not to offend, and move on.
It’s a checkbox. It’s a script. It’s a band-aid.

But cultural humility?

That’s a lifestyle.
A framework.
A daily invitation to disrupt your default settings.

At Elevate Your ABA Supervision, we don’t just sprinkle DEI language into supervision.
We redesign the entire structure around it.

Because if our field is rooted in behavior change,
then we have to model that change first.

True Story: The Moment That Changed My Supervision Forever

There wasn’t one big dramatic moment. No breakdown, no confrontation.
What changed my supervision approach was something quieter—and, honestly, more uncomfortable.

It started with a pattern I couldn’t ignore.

I’d finish a supervision session feeling like it went well—objectives were met, data were reviewed, feedback was given. But then I’d notice:

• My supervisee rarely brought up their own examples.

• They didn’t challenge my feedback, even when I knew they saw something different.

• They nodded… a lot. Smiled… a lot. But I could feel the distance.

And then one day, after a training on cultural responsiveness, it hit me:

I had built a safe space for performance.
But not a brave space for presence.

I was doing everything I had been taught: following the 7 dimensions, tracking progress, reinforcing growth. But I wasn’t trained to ask:

• “How does your culture show up in your work?”

• “Where do you feel pressure to code-switch?”

• “What part of your identity do you feel you have to leave at the door in supervision?”

That wasn’t part of the manual.
That wasn’t in any of the CEUs I took.

And that realization? It stayed with me.
It started a fire.

Because I knew that if I—someone passionate, ethical, always learning—was missing this, then others were too.

That’s why I created What Your Training Didn’t Cover: Closing the Cultural Humility Gap in Supervision.
To close the gap our training left open.
To shift the culture of supervision itself.

What Cultural Humility Actually Looks Like in Supervision

Here’s where we flip the script.

Cultural humility isn’t a theory.
It’s a practice—with real, actionable components:

1. Power-Sharing, Not Power-Wielding

Ask yourself:

• Who controls the learning in your sessions?

• Who decides what success looks like?

• Who gets to say “this isn’t working for me” without fear?

When we decentralize authority, we invite psychological safety.

2. Ongoing Self-Reflection

If you haven’t asked yourself hard questions lately, your supervision has stopped evolving.

Try this weekly prompt:
"Whose voices are missing from my supervision space this week?"

Sketch your responses. Name your bias. Then shift your approach.

3. Structured Feedback Loops

Don’t just ask for feedback—design for it.

Build check-ins into your system that measure not just skill acquisition but emotional safety, identity expression, and belonging.

You can’t fix what you won’t measure.

Visual Metaphor: The Supervision Echo Chamber

Imagine a supervision room as a perfectly sealed echo chamber.

• The supervisor talks. The ideas bounce back, unchanged.

• The supervisee adapts, suppresses, blends in.

But add cultural humility, and the walls soften.
Ideas come in. Identities expand.
Suddenly, it’s not an echo.
It’s a dialogue.

Ready to Do Supervision Differently?

Here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:

You can’t create equity in ABA if you’re still supervising with an outdated, one-directional model.

That’s why I created the training:
“What Your Training Didn’t Cover: Closing the Cultural Humility Gap in Supervision.”

It’s not a CEU you watch and forget.
It’s a call to action.
A framework for rethinking power, privilege, and presence in supervision.

And it’s hosted at the only place built specifically for BCBAs® ready to lead with authenticity:
Elevate Your ABA Supervision

What You’ll Walk Away With:

• A cultural humility self-audit tool you can use immediately

• Strategies to identify and interrupt bias in real-time

• Feedback structures that amplify supervisee voices

• Templates for ongoing reflection—because this work never ends

Let’s Build the Future of Supervision—Together

The world doesn’t need more “good enough” supervisors.

It needs brave ones.
Curious ones.
Unlearning ones.

You don’t need to be perfect.
You just need to be willing to start.

So—are you ready to supervise differently?

Your field is watching.
But more importantly, so are your supervisees.

Join the Movement

Explore the training: What Your Training Didn’t Cover: Closing the Cultural Humility Gap in Supervision

Let’s elevate not just your skills—but your impact.