u/TransitionSmooth9982

I care deeply about my interns. I try to create a supportive environment where they feel safe to speak up, prioritize self care, and ask for help. I remind them often that I am available and that they do not need to overextend themselves.

And yet, I am finding myself in a really frustrating pattern.

I have had an intern say yes to taking on clients, and then not follow up with those clients at all, leaving me to step in and absorb the workload. I have had interns who seem afraid to advocate for themselves or say no, but then end up overwhelmed and disengaged. I have even had interns go completely silent, or one of them was pulled from the site because they could not manage the pressure, despite having a very small caseload of one client. I find myself trying to figure out how many clients to send them, hearing pressure from them to hit their hours, and then being told “I feel like I always have to be on.” I am confused by that.

Recently, I also received a very clinical, almost detached message from an intern who is otherwise highly engaged, which threw me off. It made me realize how quickly communication can shift when someone is overwhelmed.

I am aware that many interns are juggling a lot with jobs, school, and practicum. But I am struggling with the sense that the internship, where they are seeing around three to five clients per week, is being framed as the primary source of burnout, while I am experiencing the downstream impact of missed communication, unreturned client outreach, and added responsibilities. Sometimes my intern does not even respond with a simple “got it” to an email I send.

What is hardest is the lack of communication. I can work with overwhelm, anxiety, or burnout, but I cannot work with silence.

It leaves me holding responsibility for client care, managing logistics, and trying to support someone who is not letting me in. At the same time, there are complaints to the school that I am not consistent these past couple of weeks with supervision (best friend passed away), but I have asked several times to meet despite that but they couldn’t due to conflicts with their outside work schedules. This is one intern, my others are hitting all hours.

I am also noticing things like responding to clients after hours, even though I have been clear about boundaries and never once expected of them to always be “on”. We end at 6 pm and there is no need for client contact after that. It starts to feel like I am carrying both the clinical responsibility and the emotional weight of trying to catch issues before they escalate.

I guess I am wondering:

Is this a common experience in supervision right now?

How do you balance being supportive and available while also holding clear expectations around communication and responsibility?

And how do you not take it personally when someone disengages, even when you have tried to create a safe and supportive space?

Two of my interns are thriving, and I am always open to feedback and incorporate it. Still, I cannot help feeling down about this previous intern who left and the one current intern who is struggling (despite making me think they were totally fine up until a day ago.)

I would really appreciate hearing how others navigate this. I am talking to my own therapist about it, but I am also curious to hear other supervisors’ perspectives.