Can I tell you something you could do differently next time?

There are probably people reading that sentence whose shoulders just went up.

Because feedback can be incredibly useful, but it can also make your stomach drop before the other person has even finished the sentence.

We know this from both sides too.

Most of us have had someone give us feedback that made us think, yep, that's helpful. I know exactly what to do with that.

And we've probably also had feedback that left us replaying the conversation in the car on the way home wondering if we're actually terrible at our job.

The goal is not to avoid uncomfortable conversations

We don't think being supportive means never telling someone that something needs to change.

That would not be particularly supportive either.

If an AHA is missing something important, doing something incorrectly, stepping outside an agreed boundary or simply needs another way to approach a task, the AHP needs to be able to talk about it.

The question is whether that conversation helps the person learn or just makes them scared of getting it wrong again.

Specific feedback is much easier to use

Imagine finishing a session and being told, "You need to be more confident."

Okay.

But what do you actually do with that tomorrow?

Now compare it with, "When they stopped the activity, I noticed you asked the same question a few times quite quickly. Next time, give them a little more processing time before you repeat it."

That's something you can try.

Useful feedback tends to work much better when it is about something the person actually did, said or could change, rather than making a judgement about who they are.

AHAs are often already analysing themselves

This is worth remembering.

An AHA can walk out of a session thinking about the instruction they worded badly, the activity that did not land, whether they should have asked for help earlier and whether the therapist noticed all of it.

Sometimes by the time the supervision conversation starts, they've already given themselves a performance review in their own head.

Jess and Robyn both talk pretty openly about our own ADHD, and that feeling of replaying conversations can be very real for us.

So we don't need to wrap people in cotton wool, but we do think it helps to know there might already be a lot happening underneath a very simple, "How did the session go?"

Start with what you both noticed

One way to make feedback feel less like a verdict is to turn it back into a conversation.

You might start with, "How did that bit feel to you?"

Or, "What did you notice when they stopped responding?"

Sometimes the AHA has already noticed exactly the thing you were going to raise.

Now you're not catching them out. You're helping them think it through.

And if they did not notice it, you have a much clearer starting point for teaching.

Feedback should not only arrive when something went wrong

This is a big one.

If the only time your supervisor becomes very specific is when you've made a mistake, you learn pretty quickly that detailed feedback means trouble.

We need to be specific about what is working too.

Not just, "Great job."

More like, "You waited instead of jumping in when they got stuck, and they ended up completing that step independently."

Now the AHA knows what to keep doing.

That matters for learning just as much as knowing what needs to change.

And AHAs, feedback is not always criticism

This bit goes both ways.

When we're nervous about getting things wrong, even a neutral suggestion can sometimes sound much bigger in our head than it was intended to be.

If you're not sure what the feedback means, ask.

"Can you show me what you would do instead?"

"Is that something you want me to change every session, or just with this client?"

"What should I look for next time?"

Those questions turn feedback into something useful instead of leaving you to fill in the gaps yourself.

The hardest feedback should not be a surprise

If something important is not going well, especially something involving safety, scope or a repeated concern, we don't think saving it all up for a formal review is helpful.

People need the opportunity to understand the concern, make a change and get feedback on how that change is going.

That is part of supervision.

And from the AHA side, if you're confused about an expectation, ask before it turns into six weeks of trying to guess.

Sometimes the supervisor needs feedback too

We really want allied health teams to get more comfortable with this.

Supervision is not only the AHP talking and the AHA receiving.

An AHA might need to say, "I understand the activity, but I'm still not clear about what you want me to do if they refuse it."

Or, "When you give me several changes quickly at the end of the session, I struggle to remember all of them. Could we write the main one down?"

That is useful information for the supervisor too.

The goal is not a hierarchy where one person always has the right answer. The AHP still holds responsibility for appropriate delegation and supervision, but good teamwork needs information moving in both directions.

Good feedback should leave you clearer about what to do next, not just clearer that somebody thinks you got it wrong.

We want to hear both sides of this one. If you're an AHA, what kind of feedback actually helps you improve without making you shut down? If you're an AHP or supervisor, what have you found helps you have the harder conversations while still protecting the relationship? Add it below. There are probably a lot of teams who could learn from how other people are doing this.