Supervision
 Supervision is a key part of psychotherapeutic work and is
increasingly being used by senior management to understand
and improve interpersonal dynamics in the workplace.
There are numerous definitions of what supervision is and
the following combination seems to sum it up well:
Supervision provides an opportunity for the student to capture
the essence of the psychotherapeutic process as it is articulated
and modelled by the supervisor, and to recreate it in the
counselling relationship.
(Holloway, 1992:177)
Supervision is a working alliance between a supervisor and
a worker or workers in which the worker can reflect on herself
in her working situation by giving an account of her work
and receiving feedback and where appropriate guidance and
appraisal. The object of this alliance is to maximise the
competence of the worker in providing a helping service.
(Inskipp and Proctor, 1988: 4)
Supervision is that part of the overall training of mental
health professionals that deals with modifying their actual
in-therapy behaviours
(Lambert, 1980:425)
Supervision is an intensive, interpersonally focused one-to-one
relationship in which one person is designated to facilitate
the development of therapeutic competence in the other person.
(Loganbill, Hardy & Delworth, 1982:4)
An intervention provided by a more senior member of a profession
to a more junior member or members of that same profession.
This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has
simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning
of the more junior person(s), monitoring the quality of professional
services offered to the client(s), she, he, or they see(s),
and serving as a gatekeeper of those who are to enter the
particular profession.
(Bernard & Goodyear, 1998:6)
Andrew is a qualified supervisor who utilises a range of
models and works in a collaborative way with supervisees either individually or in groups. His
aim is to develop a supervisory alliance where the supervisee
feels safe to explore their practise "warts and all".
His premise is that we learn more from mistakes than successes
and that is the key to safe & effective therapy.
As Jung said, "The psychotherapist learns little or
nothing from successes. They mainly confirm in him his mistakes,
while his failures on the other hand, are priceless experiences
in that they not only open a deeper truth, but force him to
change his views & methods."
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