Supervision

Supervision offers counsellors a regular opportunity to review their work in a confidential setting. This allows them to unload some of the stressful and distressing elements of their work and to take an overview of what is happening in order to enhance the clarity and purpose of their work. Supervision:

• is a chance to recognise what is working well and to think about what is not working so well and what might help to make a difference.

• is a place in which mistakes can be explored without blame, in order to ensure that they are learned from and not repeated.

• offers the space to reflect on and plan for professional development needs.

• ensures that counsellors take good care of themselves and so are able to offer the best quality professional service to their clients.

Independent supervision can benefit anyone working in a stressful job, offering people the same kind of space and opportunity to reflect that counsellors value so much in their work. In some professional arenas this may be called consultancy rather than supervision but the purpose is essentially the same.