Supervision
In the UK it is established ethical working practice for counsellors and psychotherapists to have a regulated amount of supervision. Each supervisor is also in supervision, my supervision work is
therefore equally covered. I do not work in a vacuum.
The title “supervisor” is itself a misnomer, the label does not, as I see it in counselling and psychotherapy, fit its
function. The relationship, is rather one of a more experienced to a, perhaps, less experienced colleague. It is part good
humoured challenger, part fellow traveller, but very much one of equality. I care and support my clients and supervisees as much as my supervisor supports and cares for me.
There is something of a difference between supervision given to trainee practitioners who usually find themselves in the three-way position of having responsibility to an agency and a course provider as well as their clients and supervision given to qualified private practitioners.
Supervision helps with:
Status
There is a tendency amongst both clients and new trainees alike to put their therapists and supervisors on a pedestal. I try to oppose this by recognising the truth: within both the supervisory
and therapeutic process I am learning as much as my clients and supervisees.
It was Jung who coined the term “wounded healer” to describe the indispensable need for the therapist to know at first hand the meaning of suffering for a healing relationship to be genuine. I hope
that, when I get hurt, I have the grace to learn.
Psychotherapist or Counsellor?
Professional sparring surrounds these terms. We sometimes seem more preoccupied with the titles on the bits of paper we acquire than the insights that follow working with life's pains and
contradictions or a spiritual practice that focuses on clearing the mind and opening the heart.
What matters is that the supervisee discusses with the supervisor the matching depths of psychological contact or compatibility he or she is sensing when meeting clients.
I have had a session with a supervisee who, in one and a half hours with her client, had clearly got to exactly the appropriate depth for this person to make the decisions she needed.
How can that relationship be labelled to fit professional definitions?