What is professional supervision?
Professional supervision is an essential aspect to continuing professional development and plays a key part in ensuring good practice. Professionals at all levels of their career will benefit from supervision, as it provides an important opportunity to reflect on your professional practice, including what went well, or not so well, and where improvements could be made. Professional supervision is most commonly done individually, however it can also be done in groups. Both formats are provided at InCourage Supervision.
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The way we approach supervision is through guided reflective practice. This is a process which helps you gain insight into your professional practice by thinking analytically about any element of it. The insights developed, and lessons learned, can be applied to maintain good practice and can also lead to developments and improvements for both the professional and the client groups they work with.
Different people learn in different ways and while one person may learn by reflecting on a positive outcome, another may find it most useful to focus on a situation they found challenging. It is important that reflection is done in the way that suits you best to provide the greatest benefit.
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Reflective practice can have positive impacts for your service users, your colleagues, your practice and your health and wellbeing. It allows you to identify and appreciate positive experiences and better identify ways that you can improve your practice and service delivery. It can also be useful when you have had more challenging experiences, helping you to process and learn from them.
what theories inform our approach?
At InCourage Supervision we draw from a variety of theories, models, and influences to provide the best possible level of professional supervision for the individual supervisee. There are two models in particular that are foundational to our approach, and those are the seven eyed model of supervision created by Peter Hawkins and the reflective learning model of supervision by Allyson Davys.
By making use of these two models as our base we ensure a process to follow which delivers outcomes and actions for the supervisee, as well as a transparent and negotiable approach to how we explore and look at practice. Following will be a brief overview of both models.
The seven eyed model
One of pioneering models within professional supervision is the seven eyed model which was created by Peter Hawkins, and has been refined and adapted for a range of professions and audiences ever since (Hawkins, 1985). The seven eyed model is particularly useful for supervision within the helping professions as it brings a variety of perspectives and stakeholders into the supervisory space. From the client, to the practitioner, to the supervisor, and wider considerations of the organization and society the seven eyed model attends to all these things and more.
The way that the seven eyed model achieves this is through its multiple perspectives that interact and focus on those stakeholders, and the relationships that intertwine, connect, and affect them. In line with the models name there are indeed seven separate modes. It should be noted that although the model is numbered, it is not meant to be worked through sequentially. Rather there is freedom to shift and move from different perspectives to meet the needs of the moment in supervision (Hawkins & McMahon, 2020). Lets now review in brief the modes.
Beginning at mode one is the client situation, which attends and considers the person, group, or general situation that is being worked with by the practitioner. The second mode looks at the practitioners interventions and the tools, techniques, and general approach of working that has been, or could be, employed. The third mode looks at the working relationship between the client and the practitioner which can identify relational dynamics of transference that might be coming from the client towards the practitioner. The fourth mode considers the practitioner themselves, and how they are being affected and functioning in tandem with the demands of the work. This area can continue to explore relational dynamics such as counter transference.
The fifth mode reflects on the supervisory relationship which is focused on what is happening and being experienced, and ensuring there is a good working alliance in place. The sixth mode is focused on the supervisor and their experiences. This can be helpful in providing insight into what might be happening in the client relationship, or to what might be happening in the wider supervisory relationship. There is also a sub area in this sixth mode that looks at the phantasy relationship that could occur when the supervisor considers how they would work with the client group being discussed.
The final and seventh mode considers the wider context of things that are happening for all the stakeholders involved. This consideration is very broad and attends to matters such as the wider organization, cultural and societal matters, codes of ethics, political and economic factors, amongst others.
the reflective learning model of supervision
Another model of great value is the reflective learning model of supervision which was developed by Allyson Davys (Davys, 2001). This model asserts first and foremost that supervision is a learning process, and looks to shift the relational dynamic within supervision to be a partnered approach to learning and growth between the supervisee and the supervisor. By doing so this works to breakdown and diminish power dynamics inherent within supervision as best as possible (Sweeney & Creaner, 2014). The intent of the model is summarized well when Davys & Beddoe (2021) wrote that it “promotes a way of thinking rather than a blueprint for doing”.
To achieve this the reflective learning model of supervision is structured in such a way that it guides the process through a series of steps (Davys & Beddoe, 2009). These steps in summary are followed in a sequence which are event, exploration, experimentation, and then evaluation. Lets now explore in more depth how the reflective model works.
To begin the model is structured to have a beginning phase that attends to preparation for the session, greetings or rituals that are specific to the supervisee and the supervisor, and a setting of the agenda. In the agenda setting the supervisee identifies what they want to bring forward for supervision, and what they want out of it. The model then progresses into describing the event in more detail, and the supervisee is then encouraged to tell the story and bring the situation or the client into the space. This assists to clarify the issue and identify the goal for the supervisory session.
The model then shifts to the mode of exploration to support and empower the supervisee to begin to solve the problem. This is achieved through an examination of impacts and implications specific to the issue. In looking at impacts this is focused on how the supervisee is being affected which can consider emotions, values, patterns of behavior, and transference. And in exploring implications the issue is analyzed in ways that consider power, relational dynamics, practice standards, and wider organizational and societal contexts. Through this exploration phase and general reflective process a plan begins to be established and framed up by the supervisee, with the support and reflection from the supervisor.
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Once planning has occurred the model then shifts to the experimentation mode. Here the supervisee starts to look at the plan or solution that has been created in answer to the issue and goal brought forth at the beginning, and to start to solidify it by considering it from different perspectives. Does the plan have any limitations, and is it flexible enough to be considered robust? In the pursuit of this experimentation the plan or solution is then pressure tested to a degree.
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The model then shifts to the evaluative mode where the supervisory session is reflected on to ensure the right learning has taken place and that the plan is fit for purpose. This then leads to the conclusion of the session where generalized learnings can be reflected on, feedback provided, and the next session planned for.