News
The power of reflection
New study is first to describe how reflective consultation works in child welfare field
Alyssa Meuwissen, research associate at the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) in the Institute of Child Development, recently concluded a multi-year study of a reflective consultation initiative for child welfare workers in Minnesota, funded by the Sauer Family Foundation. Reflective consultation is a form of relationship-based professional development. It’s often offered to people who work with young children and their families, like educators, social workers, and early intervention specialists. With training, a supervisor can provide reflective support to their direct reports; this is called reflective supervision. Alternatively, as in the initiative that Meuwissen studied, some organizations hire an outside consultant. The supervisor or consultant meets regularly with frontline professionals. Meetings can be one-on-one or in groups, in person or online.
The early childhood development organization Zero to Three defines reflection as “stepping back from the immediate, intense experience of hands-on work and taking the time to wonder what the experience really means.” Reflection is a process that can be very beneficial at work and in personal relationships. It can involve becoming more aware of our feelings and connecting them to causes and behaviors. It can also involve taking time to understand how another person’s perspective about an experience may be different than our own. It’s a chance to notice and confront biases, process baggage from past experiences, and get clarity on our goals. For people in helping professions, those goals might center around how best to help a child or family.
The child welfare field is increasingly using reflective supervision or consultation to leverage the power of reflection for child welfare workers’ wellbeing and effectiveness. Meuwissen’s study looked at an 18-month pilot reflective consultation program for a county child welfare agency. Results were encouraging: Meuwissen found that participants increased their skills in perspective taking, self-regulation, and relationship building. They also saw reflective consultation sessions as a safe place to discuss issues of power, privilege, and race.
Meuwissen says. “Many people who were working fully remotely felt they got more connected to their team.”
Past studies have demonstrated the benefits of reflective consultation in other fields, such as clinical infant mental health and home visiting. Meuwissen’s study shows that these benefits also apply to child welfare, which can have more intense job stress and a higher prevalence of the belief that showing emotions on the job is unprofessional.
“We learned that most people really appreciated the chance to sit down, talk through things, and be seen as a human whose wellbeing was worthwhile.”
Model of reflective supervision
Gathering statewide data
The pilot study was an important, detailed look at what occurred in one county. But Meuwissen feels there’s still much to explore about reflective supervision and consultation in the child welfare field. The Sauer Family Foundation funded an extension project that included interviewing child welfare workers around Minnesota about their experiences with reflective supervision.
Meuwissen asked interviewees about logistics and how they felt about different modalities. She asked about barriers to being reflective. What made it easier to reflect? What were the pros and cons of different formats? What she learned surprised her.
“I was expecting that participants would basically cast their votes and one modality would win,” she says. “It was not like that. It was so nuanced. For example, take meetings online versus in person. Some people were adamant that being in person seems more respectful of human stories. Other people felt so much safer not being in the office. They said things like, ‘I can turn off my camera if I get overwhelmed. I can share more, and more authentically, when I’m on my computer.’ And there are snow storms, transportation, accessibility issues. The data did not show that being in person or being online works better. It depends a lot on the person and the situation.”
With study participants expressing so many individual—and contradictory— preferences, Meuwissen says the most important thing organizations can take away from this study is “to be intentional when making decisions” about professional development for employees. “Take time to think through how it will work, and know that it matters for how open participants are to the experience,” she says. Having some flexibility for groups to operate in ways that feel best for them can help participants get the most out of the experience.
Workers with reflective supervision experience think differently about their work
Meuwissen’s interviews with practitioners around the state also showed initial support for the idea that reflective supervision could increase reflectiveness.
“People who had experience with reflective supervision or consultation understood their work differently. Those with more experience scored higher on reflective skills like taking others’ perspectives, understanding their own emotional reaction, and holding a curious, nonjudgmental stance. It’s what you expect and hope, but this research hasn’t been done,” Meuwissen says. “So it was exciting to actually find that this was the case. If reflective supervision helps people be reflective, compassionate, and nonjudgmental, that should directly translate into better practice.”
Diagram of reflective supervision key principles from Reflective Supervision: A Guide from Region X to Enhance Reflective Practice among Home Visiting Programs. Used with kind permission from the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families; the Center for Early Relational Health (formerly Washington Association for Infant Mental Health); the Alaska Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health; Aim Early Idaho; and the Oregon Infant Mental Health Association.