Individual and Group Supervision
Our approach
Our supervision approach is broadly similar having both been trained with the same organisation, CSTD. We bring experience in the voluntary and public sector, from education settings, NHS Primary Care, the University sector and from our personal journeys in life.
Whilst you may have a preference as to who you work with, and we do have our own individual styles, we frequently refer people requesting supervision to each other based on our availability and specific experience.
Methodology
We find it important and useful to employ the ‘7-eyed model’ (Hawkins and Shohet ,2004) which is compatible with Gestalt theory and humanistic approaches. This supports a process approach to exploring the co-created relational fields of the client, therapist and supervisor as well as the work context.
This is a process model of supervision which enables a shift in focus as and when necessary in the awareness-raising activity which, for us, is at the heart of supervision. This approach allows for curiosity and builds trust in the working relationship between supervisee and supervisor.
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We seek to ground interventions in our embodied experience and support supervisees in doing the same. Our experiences of meditation and mindfulness teaching are further supports for catching the inner experience as we work.
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We both like to work creatively with, for example using metaphors, images or creative materials to help model some aspect of the therapeutic work being considered.
Supervision with Trainees
We encourage appropriate openness and vulnerability by being transparent to our own process and by building a working alliance with supervisees, encouraging him or her to voice their experience in the relationship. Our experience is that in this way, over time, trainee supervisees learn to trust their own phenomenology, experience less shame and bring their experience forward with curiosity.
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The support aspect of supervision often needs to be figural, but we also encourage trainee supervisees to use their personal therapy where this is necessary. We listen to recordings, suggest appropriate reading and support academic assignments as necessary.
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We negotiate links to tutors as part of our support strategy and collaborate with the training Institute as necessary including attending occasional meetings, completing the required paperwork and managing any serious concerns about a trainee in as transparent a manner as possible.
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We consider it very important to support trainees in making a thorough risk assessment of those with whom they seek to work, with contracting and the building of therapeutic alliances and with the integration of theory into practice.
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We help the trainee value contextualising the work by exploring the field conditions that apply and linking these to what is going on in the client/therapist and therapist/supervisor relationships.
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We find that helping trainees to identify their growing edges aids them in knowing where to focus, in finding out what they need to research about their practice and in taking more clinical responsibility for their own work.
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Trainees often need help slowing down their interventions and in not trying to ‘fix’ an aspect of the client’s presentation, and we believe that being grounded in a supportive supervisory relationship is the key to this.