September 2026 Clinical Supervision Topic: Asking for Feedback

This past month in group supervision, I found myself saying it is the client’s experience that matters most. Theory, modalities, wisdom, instinct, experience...all of these matter. But the client’s experience takes the cake. This informs the goals, process, and relationship.

We’ve studied asking for feedback in the past, and I think it’s worth revisiting every year.

Here is a very short video from John Norcross, one of the leading researchers on what is effective in therapy. In it, he says we can focus on three simple questions.

So, as you go about your interactions with clients this month, I encourage you to give this a try. Whether you’re doing therapy, case management, crisis work, care coordination, skills work, assessments, or something else entirely, see if you can find ways to ask:

• How do you think our work together is going? Are you getting what you want and need here?

• How are we doing? Do you feel comfortable and understood in this relationship?

• What would you like more or less of from me?

And then, listen to what they share and let it shape the work.

Lastly, I wanted to share this handout from Susie Snyder, LCSW. As you may already know from working with me or reading my newsletters, Susie has been a significant mentor for me over the years, ever since I took her child and family therapy class at Portland State in 2008/2009. She is a very special person to me, and an incredibly skilled, hard-working, constantly-learning clinician.

Susie’s handout is a really great, straightforward way to develop and practice the muscle of asking clients: What’s it like here for you?

I think that question is worth coming back to again and again. Our knowledge, experience, theories, interventions, resources, and ideas about our work do matter. But none of them can tell us exactly what it is like to be the person on the other side of the interaction.

We have to ask to truly know.

Looking forward to seeing you all this month.