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Do I need Supervision?

SIMPLY put, YES!!!

Geldard and Geldard in their book Basic Personal Counselling (2001) state that all counsellors need clinical supervision to help them resolve their own issues and to avoid burnout in what is an emotionally draining occupation. As well as providing a sounding board for the counsellor’s concerns, a supervisor is in a good position to spot the onset of any symptoms of burnout and to assist the counsellor in dealing with them.

Supervision is perhaps the most important component in the development of a competent practitioner. It is within the context of supervision that trainees begin to develop a sense of their professional identity and to examine their own beliefs and attitude regarding clients and therapy. (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2007, p.360)

A good counsellor will be fully aware of his or her own values, beliefs, attitudes and biases; being aware of them lessens the danger of their impacting negatively on the counselling relationship. We all operate within a personal belief system, but counsellors need to remember always to work with their clients in a way which is consistent with the client’s values, not their own.

Besides the benefits mentioned, supervision is a mandatory requirement for Counsellors to keep their registration with a professional body, thus allowing them to obtain insurance.

Peter Hawkins and Robin Shohet state

“There are many reasons to be proactive in getting clinical supervision for ourselves. First, supervision is a central form of support, where we can focus on our own difficulties as a worker as well as have our supervisor share some of the responsibility for our work with the clients. Second, supervision forms part of our continual learning and development as workers, including eventually helping us to learn how to be supervisors.

A good supervisor can also help us to use our own resources better, manage our work load and challenge our inappropriately patterned ways of coping. We think that, if we are helping clients take more change of their own lives, it is essential that we are doing the same. Finally, there is research to show that good clinical supervision correlates with job satisfaction”. (Hawkins, & Shohet, 2000, p.23)

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Catharsis Society