Supervision is a space for you to bring your work, to look with fresh eyes, with compassion, inquiring, reflecting and developing your work and yourself. A space to step outside of ones usual frame of reference and assumptions, to enquire from a fresh perspective. Appreciative enquiry about how the work is enables us to keep the passion for our work alive.
The purposes of supervision are:
1) To underpin and promote reflective and informed practice.
2) As a result, to underpin and support best practice in a way that is
beneficial to both practitioners and clients.
“In all its forms the alchemy of supervision is a radical and potent source for learning – about our work.” Nicola Coombe
Joan Wilmot describes the supervision conversation as “its simplicity, complexity, depth and breadth. At one and the same time the conversations are personal, and universal, practical and visionary.”
“When we find the robust vulnerability to seek the help we need, it often arrives more easily than we thought. The external sounding board of effective supervision during transformation creates a space for magic to happen.” Richard Oliver.
Regular supervision is an ethical responsibility and professional requirement. Supervision offers professionals (counsellors, other supervisors, clinicians, teachers, police & public services, armed forces, social care etc..) a safe, empathic and non-judgemental space where all aspects of practice and any issues arising can be discussed and considered openly.
The BACP Ethical Framework defines supervision as:
“A specialised form of mentoring provided for practitioners responsible for undertaking challenging work with people. Supervision is provided to ensure standards, enhance quality, advance learning, stimulate creativity, and support the sustainability and resilience of the work being undertaken.”
Supervisors should be appropriately qualified and with extensive practice experience, preferably in a similar field e.g working with children & young people; trauma or abuse. A good supervision relationship with a more experienced practitioner can support and ensure supervisees stay grounded, maintain professional and ethical boundaries, develop their knowledge (both theoretically and practically) as well as focus on self-care to avoid “burnout”.
External independent supervision can be a useful adjunct to organisations working with complex casework or high-pressure environments.
Therapist:
Lynn Johnston