I hope you feel you are already well supported in your work! I want to let you know about how supervision (which is also known as mentoring) can help you with your work, plus its effect on the rest of your life too. Or, as I like to call it super-vision, because of the insight I gain from it. Some questions to reflect on:
• How do you cope with dealing with other peoples suffering?
• How do you
support people when you don’t feel supported?
• How do you protect yourself from taking on clients/patients problems?
• Who listens to you without judgement when you talk about your work and what that work is like for you?
• How do you move forward with treatment when you find the client/ patient difficult to work with?
• How do you avoid heading for burnout when things start to become overwhelming?
• How do you survive your own inner critic?
• How do you cope when you don’t have enough clients/patients? So, what supervision can do for you? When you hear the word supervision and you’re not familiar with it, I can imagine it sounds like someone is going to look over your shoulder and judge your work. Whereas actually, it’s much more about having a dedicated person alongside you to look at things like your relationship with your clients / patients, how you manage stress at work and it might be about how you deal with a client /patient you feel stuck with. Supervision is about empowerment! Formative: helping people in their professional development. Normative: helping people aspire to quality standards. Restorative: offering people support in the difficulties they experience. I believe supervision supports people who work alone in many ways. Such as having longevity at work (feeling able to do your job long term), avoid burnout / compassion fatigue (at any level) and have a harmonious relationship with themselves around their work lives. It’s a place of learning, growth and support where you never need to feel isolated when dealing with a challenge. What you need from supervision may change as your practice develops. Newly qualified holistic health professionals may be looking for support with establishing their business, moving from theory to practice and interacting with patients professionally. Where more established practitioners may speak about the effects of working alone, feeling supported and developing their knowledge. Supervision can be delivered in a one-to-one setting or in a group. An environment of trust, support and sharing is encouraged. Participants at group supervision often talk about valuing working together with colleagues, combining knowledge and group members often find that when an concern is shared that other group members have (or have had) similar issues. If you’d like to find out more, please contact me.
