In the second article in this series, we are talking about supervision and what it might entail.

When we outline our confidentiality policy with new clients, we inform them that we may talk about their case in supervision. As a new client you may be wondering what happens in supervision. We hope to answer this in this short article.

Supervision can either be an individual counsellor with his/her supervisor or it can be a group of counsellors with or without a supervisor. In all cases the client’s identity is usually kept anonymous and all present are bound by the same confidentiality boundaries.

Why is supervision necessary? Whilst supervision for trainee counsellors is especially important, experienced counsellors also benefit from it. Talk-in-Herts counsellors are all registered members of BACP and it is a requirement of ethical practice by our professional organisation that we have regular supervision.

At Talk-in-Herts we have group supervision and by discussing our work within a safe and confidential environment we are able to ensure that we are providing the best service for our clients. Even experienced counsellors can have blind spots or find themselves becoming confused or possibly enmeshed in a client’s case at times.

Additionally, through monitoring our practice in regular supervision, we may identify areas where we would like further training and keep ourselves safe from burnout. In this way supervision not only protects clients from bad practice but also helps our counsellors to continually improve the quality of our service. Put simply, supervision helps us to see the world of our clients with fresh eyes.

People who are new to counselling are often not sure what to expect. In the next article in this series we will be considering the question – ‘What does a counsellor do?’