Working for over thirty years as a counsellor and psychotherapist, primarily within the NHS, supervision has always been an essential part of my practice and well-being. It has allowed me to ‘take stock’, gain insight, develop my knowledge and skills and increase my awareness.
I enjoyed many of my years within the NHS facilitating group supervision and providing some one to one supervision to members of the Clinical Genetics team. What I learnt was that despite coming from a slightly different discipline the core principles and process of supervision remained the same. In fact being, to some degree an ‘outsider’ allowed another dimension and differing perspective into the supervisory process.
Supervision provides a professional space, a working alliance, between the supervisor and supervisee where the supervisee can take some time to reflect on their work within a supportive relationship. For those in senior positions, which carry a significant weight of responsibility, it would seem to me that supervision is vital in allowing a them a moment to pause and consider their roles during what is often an extremely pressurised working life.
