Feminist Supervision in Higher Education as a Protective Factor for Indirect Trauma

Abstract

The empathic demands facing student affairs practitioners can cause significant emotional distress that some may experience as trauma. Supervision may mitigate this distress, but student affairs supervisors are often ineffective. This pilot study was conducted by scholar–practitioners who explored the connections between feminist praxis in supervision, professional quality of life, and indirect trauma in higher education contexts using critical quantitative methodology. Findings indicated that feminist supervision is significantly associated with lower levels of burnout and that a workshop intervention was successful in increasing student affairs supervisors' use of feminist supervisory behaviors. Because student affairs supervision literature rarely accounts for the impact of identity and individuals from minoritized groups experience a greater burden from indirect trauma, this study has important implications for advancing justice and equity in higher education practice.