Supervision – a cornerstone of great practice

I have always had supervision. It was part of my qualifying process back in 2005 and has been ever since. I have had group supervision, one to one supervision and peer to peer supervision. All have added something to my practice and I have both enjoyed and gained many benefits from the variety. However, running through my practice to date has been a long term relationship with my personal supervisor. I really value this relationship with Gil as he has seen me develop and grow as a coach. He understands my practice and we have a level of trust and understanding that enables me to be completely open and honest with myself through the highs and lows of my practice. My supervisory relationship has been essential in helping me to build confidence in my voice as a coach, and develop and grow my practice from who I am. The spark of ART in Coaching came out of a supervision session with Gil and, for me, supervision is without doubt a cornerstone of great coaching practice.

My experiences of supervision are one of the reason I qualified as a supervisor. It is a  privilege to work alongside other coaches offering a reflective, creative and developmental space to enable coaches to be the best coach they can be for their clients. Find out more about my supervision and art based supervision here.

Supervision keeps you honest

Supervision strengthens your practice and it does this through keeping you honest…helping you to attend to what you are not seeing, not hearing, not allowing yourself to feel, or not saying. My turning point came when I was able to say out loud in supervision that I was bored. By having a space to be that honest it meant I could make changes that has ultimately led me to being much more fulfilled and, as a result, a better coach (and supervisor).

Supervision does this by giving you a supportive, reflective and confidential space to:

  • Bring coaching and client issues and challenges to explore and move forward with
  • Identify, explore and understand the wider systems and dynamics at play in your coaching relationships
  • Think through what you have absorbed from your coachees and clients
  • Reflect on your own practice more broadly, identifying strengths and opportunities to develop and grow as a coach
  • Develop your own internal supervisor and deepen your reflective practice
  • Identify circumstances where you may need to refer your coachees to more specialist help

Through supervision you reflect and work on your practice in the round including;

  • Your growth – helping you develop and grow as a coach
  • Your capacity – always being mindful of your capacity and internal resources to be fully present and offering your best for your clients
  • Maintaining best practice – enabling you to be alert to ethical boundaries and exploring best practice

 

Supervision is ‘the process by which a coach, with the help of a supervisor, can attend to understanding better both the client and their wider system, and themselves as part of the client-coach system, and by so doing, transform their work and develop their craft’. Hawkins and Smith, 2006

 

Art based supervision in lock down – exploring virtual art based supervision and hearing coaches experiences of virtual art based group sessions

Images created in art based group supervision sessions

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