In this episode of Supervision Simplified, Dr. Amy Parks is joined by counseling supervision researcher and educator Gulsah Kemer for a thoughtful conversation about what supervision truly is and what it is not.

Together, they challenge the idea that supervision is simply a form of management or administrative oversight. Instead, they explore supervision as a relational, reflective, and sustainability-focused practice that supports both supervisors and supervisees over time. Gulsah shares insights from more than a decade of research and teaching in counselor education, including the development of her Cohesive Model of Supervision, a research-informed framework grounded in how experienced supervisors think and make decisions in practice.

The conversation addresses why supervisors are often left to develop their identities and styles in isolation, particularly outside of academic settings, and how this lack of support can contribute to burnout, ethical strain, and uncertainty. Dr. Parks and Gulsah discuss the importance of supervisor self-awareness, intentional reflection, and lifelong development, as well as the role supervision plays in gatekeeping, professional identity formation, and client care.

This episode is especially relevant for supervisors working with students, licensure-seeking clinicians, and early-career professionals, as well as anyone interested in the future of supervision, counselor education, and sustainable clinical practice.

Supervision isn’t about managing people. It’s about sustaining them.

In this final episode of 2025, Dr. Amy Parks zooms out to take a 30,000-foot look at what sustainability really means in supervision and leadership—and why it matters now more than ever. Drawing from supervision practice, leadership research, neuroscience, and real-world supervision stories, Amy explores how traditional management models fall short in mental health work and how sustainable supervision protects clinicians, supervisors, and the profession itself.

This episode unpacks why burnout, ethical drift, and workforce loss are not individual failures—but leadership and systems issues—and how supervision can become the most powerful tool we have for keeping clinicians engaged, ethical, and alive in the work.

You’ll hear about nervous system regulation, psychological safety, moral injury, capacity over productivity, and the subtle ways supervision either sustains or silently erodes the people inside our systems.

As we head into 2026, this episode offers a grounded, hopeful reframe: sustainability isn’t soft—it’s strategic.

Supervision Simplified brings you real conversations with real clinical supervisors navigating the complex, messy, and meaningful world of mental health. Each episode delivers tools, insights, and stories that make supervision a little simpler—because who doesn’t want simpler?

Sponsor:

Clinical Supervision Directory – www.clinicalsupervisiondirectory.com

Supervision Simplified brings you real conversations with real clinical supervisors navigating the complex, messy, and meaningful world of mental health. Each episode delivers tools, insights, and stories that make supervision a little simpler, because who does not want simpler?

In this powerful Part two of our confidential grief series, Dr. Amy Parks sits down with trauma psychologist and community builder Dr. Jenny Hughes to talk about what it really means to be humans first and therapists second.

Jenny shares the origin story of the Brave Trauma Therapist Collective, born in the middle of COVID when she was supporting frontline workers and suddenly realized no one was holding space for the therapists. Together, Amy and Jenny dig into vicarious trauma, vicarious resilience, and why the “strong therapist” myth is quietly pushing people out of the field.

They explore how reflective supervision, genuine community, and the practice of “soft front, strong back” can help therapists metabolize what they hold instead of armoring up and burning out. If you listen to part one with Dr. Khara Croswaite Brindle on confidential grief, this conversation completes the picture and offers very practical paths toward staying in the work sustainably.

This 2 part series is for supervisors, leaders, and trauma therapists who want more than survival. It is for those who want to build systems, communities, and supervision spaces that keep people human, connected, and in the field for the long haul.

Connect with Dr. Jenny Hughes and Brave Providers:

• Website: www.braveproviders.com
• Instagram: @braveproviders
• YouTube: @braveproviders

Clinical Supervision Directory – www.clinicalsupervisiondirectory.com