What is Professional Supervision?

Supervision in Counselling can be described in many ways, but a working definition is, it is a professional relationship used by supervisees to reflect on all aspects of their clinical work, with the client’s welfare in mind and a place where the supervisee can receive feedback on their work. It is also a safe space offering the supervisee support to explore, reflect, develop their capacities- promoting refinement and clarity in their clinical work. The quality of the service clients receive is a central concern of the process.

“...truly transformative supervision plumbs the depths and facilitates sustained dialogue between a supervisee’s soul (motivation), role (responsibilities) and context (people, dynamics, politics). What does it take to become more Awake, Attentive, Agile & Audacious?” Dr Michael Paterson

On a practical level, it is a working arrangement that provides transparency, oversight, accountability and safety for both clients and practitioners. It sits alongside adherence to ethics codes, professional memberships, maintenance of professional indemnity and a commitment to ongoing professional development, as part of offering a professional, accountable & responsive service to our clients. Both therapists and supervisors undertake supervision, ensuring that a chain of accountability and oversight protects our clients & work. It is also a great space for reflection, learning and development of our skills and awareness as practitioners. Below is some practical information that may assist in the development of how supervision can be a fruitful and supportive practice for all therapists.

A model of experiential learning developed by David Kolb in the 1980's is still applicable today. In this model, supervisees bring their experience for reflective observations and learning. Through a process of compassionate enquiry, with curiosity and thoughtful questions, we are encouraged to develop our theoretical understandings, reflect on what works and what doesn’t, adapt our learning, and consider how we might do things differently, which leads to a process of change and active experimentation. This cycle uses 4 ways of knowing: intuition (tacit, sensing knowing), reflective knowing (learning why something happened), declarative knowing (knowing that something is true) and procedural knowing (how to do something). When all 4 ways of knowing are engaged, a higher quality of learning takes place.

Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (vol1) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.