Why is counselling supervision needed

Some clients may refuse this consent, but the counsellor can improve the chances of its acceptance by the client by presenting the issue in a confident and professional manner. If the counsellor seems flustered or nervous the client will certainly pick up on this and probably decline to participate. It is obviously essential that all aspects of the issue are clearly explained to the client and correctly understood by both parties before seeking formal agreement.

Supervisors may work in an educative or training role, teaching the counsellor new skills and even having an ongoing training and assessment role. If the counsellor is working in an agency or organisation the supervisor will often be in a managerial role. Counsellors in private practice need to seek out a more experienced counsellor who will act in a consultancy and debriefing role.

There is also group, peer or team supervision where the supervisor is at a similar level to the supervisee. Group supervision can provide a range of learning opportunities and perspectives but, like any group activity, needs to be carefully facilitated. Peer group supervision is particularly relevant to more experienced and competent counsellors who have established a good support network.

Most supervisory relationships will be a blend of professional, education and therapeutic aspects, but it is of prime importance that the supervisor relate the supervision sessions to the counsellor supervisee and not to the issues presented by the clients.

Counsellors work in a range of different situations including organisations, helping agencies and private practice. Supervision is something which is sometimes overlooked in all three situations.

Whatever the difficulties, however, I believe that good professional supervision is a necessity for all counsellors, for learning, for debriefing, for self-development. I also believe that our clients have a right to expect that we do undertake ongoing professional development at all levels, remaining up to date and aware of new trends.

First, supervision is a central form of support, where we can focus on our own difficulties as a worker as well as have our supervisor share some of the responsibility for our work with the clients.

Second, supervision forms part of our continual learning and development as workers, including eventually helping us to learn how to be supervisors.

A good supervisor can also help us to use our own resources better, manage our work load and challenge our inappropriately patterned ways of coping. We think that, if we are helping clients take more change of their own lives, it is essential that we are doing the same. You might imagine that working with a counselling supervisor would be like having a yearly review with your boss: when you are given targets to achieve, told what training you must attend, and informed whether or not you get a pay rise.

However, counselling supervision is very different. A supervisor is a qualified counsellor, with additional qualifications in supervision and considerable practice experience.

As a student, you would typically see your supervisor for 1. It is important to keep records of when you see your supervisor and for how long; without this, the client hours you have accumulated might not be counted by your awarding body.

Formative i. Normative i. Restorative i. If this is the case, then the supervisor might suggest that the counsellor accesses their own therapy to look at issues in their lives. Understanding models of supervision can help us get the best out of our supervision, informing what we take to our supervisor.

Having a common language can support us to work more cooperatively and collegially together. One model that is used widely is that by Shohet and Hawkins, as described in their book Supervision in the Helping Professions Open University Press, This model is popular not only in counselling and psychotherapy but also in coaching, social work and support work.

Most supervision takes place on a one-to-one basis, but you can also have group supervision. For example, the BACP allows you to claim half the time if there are up to four people in the group. For groups of more than four, you have to divide the amount of time by the number of people so for two hours of supervision, a group of six could claim 20 minutes each. Peer supervision again involves working in a group, but without the presence of a qualified supervisor.

Peer supervision is usually a reciprocal arrangement involving peers working together to help each other learn and develop. The NCS also have a directory of qualified supervisors who offer reduced fees for supervision for NCS student members.

These supervisors can be found via Counselling Directory - Refine search — Options — Show only Supervisors - Reduced fees for trainee counsellors. I wonder how your second week of online practice has been? We are delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with our latest organisational member, The EMDR Centre, to offer an exclusive training opportunity for NCS members.

We are aware that in the pa You have put in the hard work and are enjoying a new and exciting career as a counsellor or psychotherapist, so why does it pay to then think about a specialism? Although some of us may shy away fro Find the help you need It can provide a framework and clarify the main issues. Supervision is an opportunity to hypothesise, check out and receive a new perspective.

The supervisor can help by furnishing the supervisee with information, different approaches, and new therapeutic models. It should be an energising experience that helps the therapist to be able to present in the counselling room. Supervision and true reflective practice should, in fact, be an intrinsic cornerstone for all professional in the 'caring' professions. Counselling Directory is not responsible for the articles published by members.

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