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Dr. Michael Carroll
What is Supervision?
Supervision is a reflective practice space that supports your professional growth. It provides an opportunity to problem-solve and enhances your wellbeing and ethical practice.
Why Consider Supervision?
Supportive Environment
Professional Nourishment
Containment
Understanding Concerns Around Supervision
It’s common to feel apprehensive about engaging in supervision, often associating it with performance management and scrutiny. According to Maxine Caine, a Senior Educational Psychologist, it’s crucial to clarify supervision as a support system, not a tool for evaluation.
What I Offer
Person-Centred Approach:
Confidential and Non-Judgemental Space:
The 7-Eyed Model of Supervision
The Client: Focusing on the clients and their needs.
The supervisee (You): Considering your thoughts, feelings, and actions in your role.
The Relationship: Examining the connections between you and your clients.
The Supervisory Relationship: Reflecting on our working relationship and how it influences your practice.
The Context: Understanding the wider setting and its impact on your work.
The Process: Analysing the processes and dynamics of your approach.
The Wider System: Evaluating external factors affecting your work, such as policies and community influences.
Initial Conversations
Your hopes, needs and goals for supervision
Any apprehensions or concerns you may have
Previous experiences with supervision, both positive and negative
Contracting Discussions
Why Is Supervision Essential?
'The practice of supervision will become increasingly essential if humanity is going to preserve and develop its ability to care for the most vulnerable members of society, in a time when resources are stretched, and challenges are continuously increasing, in size and complexity’
Hawkins and McMahon, 2020, p. 285
As a Psychotherapist, supervision is required to ensure the highest standards of professional, ethical practice (IACP).
As a Life Coach, supervision is not mandatory; however, up to 10 hours of supervision can count toward Continuing Coach Education (CCE) credential renewal (ICF).
As a Nurse, supervision is a core component of professional development and workplace support (INMO). Supervision is a structured, confidential space to talk through clinical experiences, process emotions, and improve patient care (RCN).
As a Social Care worker, supervision is critical to practitioners' capacity to grow and develop a sense of themselves in their role and in relation to the people they work with.
As a Social Worker, supervision is a structured, collaborative process where Social Workers examine their practice, emotional responses, and ethical decisions (IASW).
In summary, supervision is not just a checkbox in your professional development; it is vital to maintaining your mental and emotional wellbeing. It fosters ongoing growth & empowers you.
What is Coaching Supervision?
Coaching supervision is a place to pause, breathe and reflect.
It gives us space to step away from the busyness of coaching and reflect on what is really happening in our work with clients. Sometimes we need a sounding board. Sometimes we are curious about something that happened in a session. Sometimes we simply have a feeling there is more to explore.
The ICF describes coaching supervision as “a collaborative learning practice” that builds the capacity of coaches through reflective dialogue, for the benefit of both coach and client.
Unlike mentor coaching, supervision isn’t about checking our coaching against the competencies. It is about exploring the complexity of our practice, the client, the relationship, the system around us, our own responses, and what we might not yet be seeing.
Supervision can support us in three important ways:
Normative: exploring ethics, boundaries and professional practice
Formative: developing our skills, awareness and confidence
Restorative: looking after ourselves as coaches
And supervision doesn’t have to be serious all the time!
I love bringing creativity into supervision, and I invite you to do so too. I use symbols, miniatures, sand tray, art, clay, or sometimes it’s simply asking a question that opens up a different way of seeing things.
We might explore a challenging client relationship, a contracting dilemma, the complexity of team coaching, a recurring pattern or simply something that has stayed with you after a session.
Please remember that you don’t need to be struggling to benefit from supervision. Whether you’re newly qualified or have been coaching for many years, having a trusted space to reflect can deepen your practice, increase your resourcefulness and help you see what might otherwise remain hidden.
Supervision can be one-to-one or in a small group, where the collective wisdom of other coaches adds another valuable perspective.
For me, good supervision is ultimately about creating the space to become an even more reflective, curious and effective coach, while remembering that we are human too.