Supervision

My Philosophy of Supervising

I provide supervision, mentoring, teaching, and administrative leadership to art/play therapists at diverse developmental levels (Carroll. M. 1996).

I see my supervisory role as offering an opportunity within the context of the relationship, to reflect, explore, support and challenge, work that has been done, and still needs to be done with and for the client. It needs to be normative, formative and restorative; in this way it may offer protection to the client, supervisee and the wider context.

A clear contract between a supervisee and myself helps identify the focus of supervision. This may emphasize one or other of the educative, supportive and developmental roles. According to whether it is more educational, where the flavour is teacher/ student, supportive ,where it is more of a peer one, or developmental, where the focus may be the desire to move through resistances and make new shifts.

My aim is to provide patterns of relating with my supervisees that will travel through to the supervisee-client relationship. I seek for a quality of creative supervision, encouraging each therapist to approach their activities with a feeling of freedom and at the same time with a realisation of the magnitude of responsibility. In this endeavor I have been inspired by several authors in ‘Passionate Supervision’ (Ed Shohet & Hawkins 2008)

I see conversation and images as partners, and encourage image making of various kinds. Within a session we may use art or objects to explore presenting issues through metaphor. Client images brought to supervision are treated as part of the case material and subjected to the supervisory process. (Henzell 1997) The supervisee having discussed the images with the client and now in supervision bring the client’s presence literally into the present as well. I try to be curious and spontaneous and engaged, believing that it is the quality of my presence that fosters a willingness to experiment and to play with multiple perspectives.

I evaluate the development of supervisees on a personal and professional level, and I take the same care to evaluate my personal and professional development as a supervisor. My personal experiences, in being supervised greatly influence the way I supervise. I am vulnerable to the same parallel processes at work on all participants in therapeutic and supervisory relationships. I discuss the evaluation component of supervision from the very beginning. Having an expectation of

evaluation helps create and maintain a relationship conducive to reaching the goal of supervision. In addition, normative forces, such as accreditation standards, codes of ethics, and registration requirements, affect us as supervisors, therapists, and clients .

As said by Hawkins and Shohet (2008) supervision is a place of learning for both parties, and to stay a good supervisor is to question not only the work of the supervisee but to what I do myself as supervisor and how I do it.

References:

Carroll M Tholstrup M .(2001) Integrative Approaches to Supervision London Jessica Kingsley
Shohet R & Hawkins P (2008) Ed. Passionate Supervision Jessica Kingsley London
Henzell J (1997) Supervision of Psychotherapy and Counselling. Making a Place to Think