Growing Professionally, Clinically, and Personally: A Reflective Supervision Group for Supervisors and Emerging Supervisors (Level 1)

 Earn 22 CE Contact Hours

Supervisors and practitioners in mental health, schools and community settings are working in emotionally complex systems during a period of great uncertainty. Traditional supervision often privileges solutions over reflection, leaving little space for the emotional, relational, and systemic dimensions of the work. This short course offers a different approach—one grounded in reflective practice, cultural humility, compassion, and the courage to learn through vulnerability.

Based on the Reflective Practice and Group Supervision–Consultation (RPGS-C) model developed at the Ackerman Institute, this training prioritizes emotional presence, attunement, and the experience of “being with” others. Rooted in the Ackerman Relational Approach, RPGS-C also integrates ideas from narrative, emotion-focused, and attachment-based therapies. It invites a deeper awareness of self and other and an understanding of the systemic influences that shape us.

Designed for supervisors, supervisors-in-training, and direct service providers, this experiential course includes an individual consultation, brief lecturettes, experiential exercises, role plays, and Reflective Group Supervision sessions. Participants will strengthen their ability to bring their emotional presence, cultural humility, and reflective capacity to their work—and gain practical tools to support responsive practice across complex and evolving systems of care.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

• Participants will be able to describe the core principles of the Reflective Practice and Group Supervision–Consultation (RPGS-C) model, including its foundations in cultural humility, relational, emotion-focused, and attachment-based approaches.
• Participants will be able to apply reflective practices in clinical and supervisory settings, with attention to emotional attunement, intersubjectivity, parallel process, and systemic awareness.
• Participants will cultivate their capacity to foster psychologically safe, relationally attuned spaces that support compassion for self and others, vulnerability, and the emotional well-being of helpers and those they serve.

Date/Time:

October 3, October 24, 10:30-1:30 pm (EST); November 7, December 5, 2025, 10:30-12:30 pm (EST); January 9, February 6, March 6, April 17, May 1, and June 5, 2026, 10:30-12:30 pm (EST)

10 classes and 1 individual consultation

Who Should Attend:

Clinicians, designed for supervisors, supervisors-in-training

Meet Christine Reynolds and Brenda Nikelsberg

Christine Reynolds, LCSW is an adjunct faculty member of the Ackerman Institute and a founding faculty member of the Institute’s Center for the Developing Child and Family, where she consults and provides training on working with families with young children. Christine has over 25 years of postgraduate clinical and consulting experience in child welfare, home-based family therapy, community mental health, early childhood, and private practice in rural and urban environments. She has enhanced a model of supervision called Reflective Group Supervision/Consultation (RGS-C). Additionally, Christine maintains a private practice in Manhattan specializing in families, couples, and children.

Brenda Nikelsberg, LCSW is also a faculty member in the Center for the Developing Child and Family at the Ackerman Institute. Brenda is the Co-Director of the Competent Kids Caring Communities Project and practices as a therapist in private practice. She has extensive experience as a consultant to Early Head Start programs and schools and co-facilitates training for Head Start supervisors in reflective group and individual supervision.

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