Being An Internship Supervisor: When To Interfere and When To Stay Quiet

Monday again. Monday and the first day of the 2023-2024 school year is upon me, my intern, and our clients. We have three groups today, and my intern will be leading two of the three sessions. It was split evenly, but one class is empty, so I have one less session to do!

Anyway, it is time to start being present in sessions but not lead those sessions. We started this process before the end of our extended school year session, but we will need to start the process over again. One of the things that I have learned is that my clients and my interns have some amount of regression when we are gone for breaks. In fact, I do as well. It always takes me some time to get back into the routine of working - clients and interns are no different. So, as a result, I plan on being an active part of every session for some time.

We are entering the part of my intern's time with me when I am going to start actively pulling away from my clients and group participation. I do a bit of a fading process when we get to this point - I start to move away from the group physically and in my engagement level. The process usually starts with me leaving the therapy circle to sit against the wall and write observations into formal feedback for the intern. As I continue to retreat, I move closer to my office until I am completely in my office. Once that happens, I no longer come out of my office - I do all of my observation and feedback from my room and not from the session area. This is the only way that my clients transfer session leadership from me to my intern - I have to leave the area. I usually sit in the semidarkness to accomplish full separation and to become less visible to group members.

There is a time when I have to decide that I will no longer interfere in session happenings. For a time (and we are still in this time), I am still the primary behavior manager. I take over when behaviors of concern become apparent, but that cannot happen forever. My interns have to learn how to manage those same behaviors through their musicking and music therapy process, so there comes a time when I have to go silent.

Silence is very difficult for me.

I have learned that my way to do things is not the only way to do things. By sitting in silence and providing observational notes, I learn different ways to do things. I still intervene when I have to, but I do not intervene until I absolutely have to. Sitting quietly is an interesting exercise for me with every intern.

My current intern is not quite to the point where I need to leave the session area, but we are approaching that time. I will be sitting farther and farther away from the session area in the next several weeks. I will return to the session area if I have to, but I rarely have to.

Happy Monday.