Reflective Practice Facilitator Mentor (Updated 2.1.15)
Reflective Practice Mentor endorsement is an important step for individuals who are providing leadership, workforce development, and advanced support in the infant family and early childhood mental health field. In our continued efforts to support more uniform quality standards for mentorship across diverse professional fields, we are clarifying standards for experience and consultation support for those applying for mentorship. Please review this information carefully. (Download a pdf of this page here: RPM Requirements.)
Activities of a mentor include but are not limited to program development, evaluation, supervision, training, staff development, policy development, research, and work within and across systems of care serving young children and families.
- Mentors are required to document 500 hours of reflective practice facilitation to supervisees or mentees over a period of 2 to 5 years. Please note that these are hours accrued after the original endorsement as an RFP I or II. Mentors are required to have had experience in both individual and group supervision.
- Mentors need one year of experience providing reflective facilitation with someone in a leadership role who is building reflective practice facilitation skills. This experience can be acquired concurrently with experience requirements outlined in #1.
- Mentors are required to submit a video of themselves working with a supervisee or mentee in a leadership role and a one-page reflection on the video.
- Mentors will have worked across at least two disciplines. As an example, a social worker might have worked in community mental health and also provided consultation to a Head Start Program. These requirements are meant to help capture the notion that the mentor demonstrates professional and leadership responsibility to the growth and development of the field.
- Mentors must have 18 hours of consultation from a Reflective Practice Mentor endorsed by the California Center for IFECMH.
In addition to the above:
- Applicant must previously be endorsed as a Reflective Practice Facilitator I or II. If the applicant meets the requirements for the RPF I or II, he/she must submit the application documents for the RPF I/II endorsement in addition to the mentor documents.
- Applicant must have received at least 20 hours of consultation (individual or group) on mentoring others to provide reflective practice facilitation for individuals and/or groups.
- Applicant must provide a letter of recommendation from a professional who has worked with the applicant as a mentor or colleague, who is able to discuss the individual’s skills as a reflective practice facilitator and his/her ability to mentor others to provide these services. (Letter must be different from those submitted for clinical work and RFP I or II. )
- Refer to Tips for Letters of Recommendation and Mentor_LoR_sample.
- Applicant must have 9 hours of documented coursework or training related to reflective practice mentoring and ethical dilemmas encountered in practice.
- Applicants must document the number of years and frequency of mentoring sessions they provided to others to become reflective practice facilitators.
