The complexities of service supervision: an experiential discovery

Abstract

Service supervision has become a central feature of the training of child psychotherapists in the UK. This paper reports on the work of a research workshop set up to explore the task and its complexities. The paper draws on several years of monthly meetings of a highly experienced group of supervisors. It discusses the methodology for studying supervisory processes, problems of confidentiality, the definition of role, the nature of the anxieties supervisors experience, splitting processes, which are a prominent phenomenon in the relationships between clinical placement supervisor and Training School staff, the trainee's and supervisor's relationship to the multi-disciplinary team, and the considerable pleasures and difficulties inherent in the service supervisor's task. The group was felt to be a creative experience and to enable us to discover much and to benefit from support.

Keywords:

• service supervision
• method for studying supervision
• supervisor role
• splitting
• multi-disciplinary team relationships
• professional identity

Notes

1. In our group, there were not examples of this relationship being imperilled by difficulties on the supervisor's side, but we were aware that this can arise, and mindful of the need for there to be arrangements that make a change of service supervisor possible when breakdown of trust takes place.

2. We also recognised that service supervisors might have to face coming to the view that a trainee should not be allowed to continue training. The fallout would be intensely painful but might in exceptional instances be unavoidable.