Developing a Comprehensive Supervision Program for Aspiring Behavior Analysts: A Tutorial

As the need for applied behavior analysis services rapidly grows, supervision and training for those aspiring to become behavior analysts have become acutely important and highly demanded. Behavior analysts have begun to publish fieldwork supervision guidelines and recommendations expeditiously, however research indicates behavior analyst supervisors face many barriers in implementing said recommendations (Hajiaghamohseni et al., 2021; Sellers et al., 2019). Furthermore, there are little to no data supporting the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of the tools and resources currently available, despite repeated calls for empirical evidence related to supervision practices (Kranak et al., 2023; Sipila-Thomas & Brodhead, 2024). In this article, we describe a comprehensive supervision program designed to remediate reported barriers and promote implementation of supervision practice recommendations found in the existing literature, supporting behavior analyst supervisors and trainees to assess one's capacity and readiness to begin the supervisory relationship, set clear expectations for supervision contacts and fieldwork experience, implement a competency-based approach, promote bidirectional feedback, and document supervision activities. We provide templates and preliminary data on acceptability and use of tools are shared. We conclude with recommendations for enhancing supervision programs and considerations for further research in this area.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-025-01153-x.