EMBRS: Effective Mentorship Beyond Routine Supervision

BCBA supervisors play a vital role in developing competent future behavior analysts, yet many behavior analysts receive limited formal training in empathy and relationship-building skills, which matters because supervisor compassion and support are associated with staff well-being and burnout (LeBlanc et al., 2020; Austin & Fiske, 2023). Although traditional supervision practices effectively teach technical competencies, they may not explicitly teach the compassionate interpersonal skills needed for effective professional relationships (Rohrer et al., 2021). This presentation bridges that gap by applying the 12 Behavior Breakthrough skills to BCBA supervision, providing practical ways to integrate empathy and compassion while maintaining clear expectations and accountability. Attendees will learn to identify observable supervisory behaviors that demonstrate empathy and compassion and distinguish skill deficits, performance barriers, and competing contingencies before responding to supervisee performance. Attendees will also practice using behavior-analytic strategies to provide feedback that combines clarity, collaboration, reinforcement, and a teachable next step.

Providing consistent, high-quality supervision for BCBA fieldwork trainees is one of the most persistent challenges ABA organizations face, particularly across multi-site practices with numerous supervisors. This presentation offers a real-world case study: the tiered supervision model — internally called a "Residency" — that Elevate Behavior Services developed and implemented at a two-location organization to standardize the fieldwork experience for Registered Behavior Technicians pursuing BCBA certification. The model organizes fieldwork into three progressive supervision levels, aligns BACB Task List content with a multi-quarter timeline, and rotates trainees across supervising BCBAs and both office locations to broaden clinical exposure. Attendees will review the accompanying tools that support this structure, including a monthly supervision checklist, quarterly technical and soft-skill self-assessments, defined shadowing procedures, and a trainee onboarding guide. The presentation also discusses practical implementation considerations such as balancing billable programming time with training time, using incentive structures to support trainee engagement and retention, and preparing trainees for the transition to independent practice. Whether an attendee's own program is called a residency, practicum, traineeship, or fieldwork placement, they will leave with a concrete framework — and specific guidance on right-sizing and piloting it — for building or refining supervision at their own organization.

You’re interested in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). Now what? Maybe you’re pursuing BCBA certification and wondering how to get meaningful OBM experience. Or maybe you’re already a BCBA and want to provide OBM supervision. Either way, there are some big questions to answer: What can OBM fieldwork actually look like? What makes the work behavior analytic? And how do you know whether an opportunity or supervisor is a good fit? This CEU looks at OBM fieldwork and supervision from the potential supervisee’s perspective, with plenty for current and future supervisors to take away, too. Using real-world examples, we’ll make sense of what qualifies as behavior-analytic work, how to find and evaluate potential fieldwork opportunities, and what good OBM supervision can look like in practice.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) fieldwork in classroom settings gives trainees plenty of chances to accrue both restricted and unrestricted fieldwork hours. In this discussion, we'll look at three main questions: Is the school setting actually a good fit for fieldwork? What paperwork do you need to get your hours approved? And what does the day-to-day work actually look like once you're there? Classrooms are full of socially significant behaviors worth addressing, which makes them a great training ground for building real skills. Trainees get hands-on experience with the core pieces of ABA—running assessments, pinpointing target behaviors, building out interventions, training staff, collecting data, and then using that data to shape what comes next. Completing full Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) should be a non-negotiable part of any school-based fieldwork experience, since this is where trainees start developing the clinical judgment they'll lean on for the rest of their careers. And it's not just about skill-building for its own sake—working in a school setting tends to produce more effective teachers, as they are learning and applying a variety of skills every da

Within the industry of behavior analysis, reported burnout is prevalent across practitioner levels. A practitioner’s perceived supervisor support is generally correlated with their likelihood to experience burnout (Austin & Fiske, 2023). Supervisors may implement several behavioral strategies for ongoing assessment of supervisee motivations and preferences to strengthen their supervisory relationships and decrease the likelihood of their trainees experiencing burnout, while simultaneously supporting better client outcomes. Austin, A., & Fiske, K. (2023). Evaluating the Relationship between Compassion, Perceived Supervisor Support, and Burnout among ABA Staff.

Behavior-analytic supervision often emphasizes technical knowledge and competency, yet many performance problems arise from avoidance, rigid rule-governed behavior, defensiveness, and burnout. This presentation introduces Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) as a behavior-analytic approach grounded in Relational Frame Theory and functional contextualism. It examines how the six core processes of psychological flexibility—acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values, and committed action—can help supervisees respond more effectively to discomfort while pursuing meaningful professional behavior. Common supervisory barriers, including avoidance of difficult conversations, defensiveness during feedback, analysis paralysis, and burnout, are analyzed functionally and matched with relevant ACT processes. Practical applications include values-based goal setting, brief experiential exercises, ACT-informed feedback conversations, and strategies for reinforcing openness and accurate reporting. The presentation also addresses sustainable practice, ethical boundaries, scope of competence, consent, privacy, and appropriate referral. Participants will leave with a structured approach for integrating ACT into supervision while measuring treatment fidelity, values-linked commitments, psychological flexibility, wellbeing, and exercise usefulness.