Welcome to Supervision
My background.
I trained as an Existential psychotherapist and am a
member of UKCP, BACP (senior accredited member), the Society for Existential Analysis, the European Association for
Psychotherapy, the Society for Psychotherapy and the International Council for Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Although my own therapeutic orientation is Existential, I also welcome the opportunity of working with supervisees from other
theoretical backgrounds, in an integrative manner, provided we can find sufficient common ground to do so.
Supervision: our relationship and work. In our supervision work together, we each have responsibilities towards ourselves,
towards your clients and towards each other.
I see my responsibilities to you as offering you a holding environment in
which to feel and think out loud about your work with clients. It needs to be a safe enough place in which to
explore your own world-views, sets of values, assumptions and feelings, as well as the client’s, so as to shine greater
light on the therapeutic relationship.
It is my responsibility not to seek to impose my way
of working on you, but to help you develop your own approach, abiding by the Code of Ethics of our profession, in a way that
is most beneficial to your clients. At times this is bound to involve my challenging some of your interventions. We
all have our own strengths and limitations; the process of supervision should help you clarify these for yourself, so that
you may make the most of your strengths and gain confidence in yourself as a therapist, working ethically, responsibly and
effectively within your own acknowledged limits.
It is your responsibility, as a therapist, to work
within the ethical guidelines of the BACP or your professional body and to be suitably insured.
It is your responsibility,
as supervisee, to bring your various clients to supervision and to discuss the issues, questions and feelings involved. You
need to be prepared to identify and express freely any problems and concerns you may have with aspects of your work. I
understand that this may be daunting at first, within a new supervisory relationship; it is, however, something you owe your
clients and that you and I must try to facilitate by building a trusting relationship between ourselves.
You are responsible
for letting me know if you happen to be going through a difficult time and if there are any issues in your past or present
situation, which might affect or be affected by your work. Although I am not your therapist, your wellbeing is
my concern, in so far as it may have an impact on your clients and they may impact on you.
It is my responsibility to offer you helpful
feedback in a sensitive way and you are responsible for the way in which you receive it: allow yourself to make mistakes without
feeling you need to either apologize or justify yourself. On the other hand, it is not helpful for any of us (your clients,
you or me), if you are uncritically acceptant of my feedback: if you think that I am out of order or have got ‘the wrong
end of the stick’, it is important that you let me know and that we clarify the situation.
You are responsible for ensuring that you are getting supervision that meets both
your clients’ needs and your own. So do let me know if you feel that our supervision sessions are
not meeting some of those needs and I shall be happy to explore other avenues with you.
Confidentiality. The content of our sessions remains confidential,
with the two usual exceptions: first, I shall be reflecting on some parts of our sessions in my own supervision; secondly,
if some aspect of your work is causing me serious concern, I may feel duty-bound to bring it to the attention of your professional
body. However, I would first encourage you to do so yourself or, failing that, I would inform you of my decision to break
confidentiality and take the matter further. This would be a last resort. My own organization of
reference for queries and complaints about me is the UPCA branch of UKCP.
Practicalities
My fees at present are £50.00 per hour,
payable monthly; they are higher for groups and organizations. The rate will remain the same until September 2011, when I
may increase them by £5.00 for new supervisees. I do not charge for the sessions when I am away; I
do however charge for sessions which you miss, unless you give me at least one week’s notice. I practice at the above address.
Transport:
-If you are coming by car, you can park in
the drive.
-The nearest railway station to me is South Croydon (BR zone
5), which is approximately a ten to fifteen minute walk from here - down to the Brighton Road, then left, past the Esso garage,
to Haling Park Road which is on the other side of the road.
-East Croydon is the mainline station. You
can take a 312 or a 466 bus from opposite the station, in front of the Mondial Assistance building, and get off one stop after
the Esso garage after the Swan and Sugar Loaf pub ( 'Haling Park Road'). The bus goes beyond that road, so you will
have to cross the Brighton road and walk back a little. The bus takes about ten minutes, but you may have to wait and there
is a short walk at the end, some of it uphill.
-I
am also on the following bus routes: 60, 166, 312, 405, 407, 466, 468.
I have no waiting-room, I therefore cannot receive you before your appointment time.
Contract. If you would like to us to work together, this letter will form our contract. Naturally
as time goes by, we shall develop our own way of working together and our relationship will evolve. Besides, your
needs will change over time; therefore we should review the situation occasionally, to make sure that our work is still meeting
your needs and those of your clients.
Supervision also contains elements of therapy, teaching and relating to the work place
and you may wish to stress one of these aspects more at different times. I have a particular interest in Existential therapy
as such and its philosophical roots and have contributed a chapter to van Deurzen, E. and Young, S. (2009) Existential
Supervision. (London: Palgrave).
