Supervision – Why do Counsellors & Supervisors need it?

“We need to be continually learning… supported and held in staying open… Developing our personal capacity… We need the open honesty of our colleagues constantly to attend how we each fall into illusion, delusion and collusion in our work and develop our ethical capacity to respond to complexity… Quality work cannot be sustained alone”
Robin Shohet, Passionate Supervision

I am a PACFA* accredited Clinical Supervisor.

Supervision is the ‘seat belt’ of good practice. It holds you in securely and we all know how important that secure attachment is! Who would be without it?

The supervision I have received over the years keeps me in touch with my own humility, my capacity for growth both professionally and personally and trust in myself and my client’s capabilities. It has also given me a sense of safety and support whenever I need it.

A supervisor is someone who ‘gets’ the work you do,
you are not alone!

I believe supervision is a mutual working alliance where the practitioner gets to reflect on and review their work in a respectful safe space, receiving feedback , support and if needed, guidance.

It is a space where the higher levels of ethical thinking can be explored and the practitioner’s own blind spots can become visible.

An effective supervisor is one who helps you to work out where to look, but doesn’t tell you what to see

I’ve trained with Robin Shohet and Joan Wilmot (Supervision in the Helping Professions, Passionate Supervision), Michael Carroll (On Being a supervisee, Effective Supervision, Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions), Bob Cooke (Manchester Institute of Psychotherapy) and Valerie Redman (Redman Institute, South Australia). They have all helped me shape my own supervision style from when supervision was in its infancy in Australia.

I hold supervision to be an essential element in developing and maintaining a high quality counselling & supervision practice. Without it we can put ourselves and our clients and supervisees at risk of our own fears, reactivity and ethical blind spots.

Without it we are lacking the support we need and deserve while practicing in such an intimate and intense environment.

* PACFA – Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia

PACFA Website

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