Supervision

My approach to supervision is genuinely integrative and very much collegiate. I don’t see supervision as a place where one person has all the answers, and the other comes to be told what to do. I see it as a developing relationship; we think together, stay curious, and try to understand not only what is happening for the client, but also what is happening in the therapeutic relationship and in the therapist, too.

I have a particular penchant for Gestalt, Jung, alchemy, the chakras and Transactional Analysis, and I draw on all of them where they are useful. I’m not interested in squeezing a client into a particular theory. I’m much more interested in finding the approach that helps us understand this client, at this particular moment. Sometimes Gestalt brings something alive in the room. Sometimes a Jungian or alchemical perspective opens up a completely different way of seeing the work. At other times, Transactional Analysis offers exactly the clear and practical language that is needed.

I also want to know what my supervisees want to learn. Where do you feel confident, and where do you feel a bit at sea? What would you like to understand better? What would help you develop your practice? What sort of therapist do you want to become? Supervision, for me, is not simply about ensuring the work is done properly. It is also about helping therapists develop their confidence, their curiosity and, importantly, their own way of working.
 

A great deal of psychotherapy is about learning to listen differently. In supervision, I am interested not only in what the client is saying, but in what is not being said. The pauses. The omissions. The sudden changes of subject. The contradictions. The bodily responses. The images and metaphors that seem to appear almost in passing. Sometimes what is missing from the story tells us as much as what is there.

The Transpersonal is always somewhere in the background of my work. By that, I don’t mean floating off into the spiritual and forgetting about the realities of the consulting room. Quite the opposite. I’m interested in how the soul, and its journey, show themselves through ordinary life - through relationships, dreams, illness, conflict, loss, longing, the things that repeatedly trip us up, and sometimes the things that seem to arrive out of nowhere.

For me, good supervision holds both. It attends to the practical realities of being a thoughtful, ethical and effective therapist, while also keeping an ear open for the deeper story that may be unfolding underneath.

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If you would like to explore how I can support you through supervision, please complete the form below, and I will contact you to discuss your needs.