Supervision and Training for professionals
I qualified as a supervisor in 2016 with a Diploma in Supervision: Creative approaches across modalities from the London Centre for Psychodrama,
My approach to supervision is creative, reflective and relational. We can talk and / or use creative methods or a mixture as appropriate.. As a first port of call, I encourage supervisees to use the 7-eyed model to help identify a clear focus on areas of concern in order to maximize the use of supervision time. There’s always plenty to expand upon with this micro-focus. This model was developed by Peter Hawkins and Robin Shohet and first published in 1985.in their book Supervision in the Helping Professions now in its fourth edition. The seven-eyed model is briefly described below:
Seven Eyes of Supervision:
Eye 1: Basic information, session content and observations
Eye 2: Strategies and interventions
Eye 3: The relationship: what's going on between therapist and client?
Eye 4: The therapist's process: counter-transference, the feelings, associations and assumptions of the therapist.
Eye 5: Parallel process in the supervisory relationship: what's happening between supervisor and supervisee?
Eye 6: The supervisor's process and counter-transference
Eye 7: Wider context, what's affecting the situation?
I also use a self-designed reflective theatre model (see the Your Life as Theatre section on this website) that offers an objective distance to look at the client as a character, their intention, blocks and potential to change etc. It’s important to be honest about how we are affected by a client in our interactions and move from possible judgment to a character study. Also by both of us taking a step back, we can avoid falling into what I call an empathic trance and have a good look at what’s occurring for all.
I am a Practitioner in Playback Theatre, graduating from the Centre for Playback Theatre in New York in 2008. Playback Theatre is a form of theatre that invites a true personal story and then improvises it on the spot. Although not therapy, the founder Jonathan Fox described story as a way of crystallising identity, consequently, the story is an important factor in my approach. So I maintain an interest in the story that emerges as therapy proceeds for both client and supervisee.
See: https://www.makeshifttheatre.co.uk/
Please enquire about fees for supervision.
Training and Workshops: Continuing Professional Development.
I offer regular special topic workshops for qualified practitioners and those at an advanced stage of their training on addiction and co-dependence, both as an overview and as a relevant exploration of our own comfort-strategies and client assessment and treatment plans which is aimed at newly-qualified therapists looking to set up a private practice..
Annual workshops on the topics of Men and our Mothers and Men and our Fathers separately are offered in conjunction with my colleague Matthew Byng. The next Men and our Mothers workshop will be Saturday March 16th 2024 and the Fathers workshop on Saturday September 21st.
These workshops will be facilitated by long-standing colleagues Brian Tasker and Matthew Byng. Brian and Matthew are old friends and work colleagues who, through friendly but in-depth conversation have recognised that their parents’ and grandparents’ lives were weighted by unrecognised trauma. They’ve discussed their mothers’ and fathers’ influence on them and explored and built on the shadows that remain of their earliest experiences. Together they’ve connected with deep rooted historical desires, inner processes and energies which continue to have a considerable impact on them and out of this reflection came this workshop
The Mothers / Fathers workshops are primarily intended for personal growth to explore this often complex and subtle area of human development. It could also support client work by enabling us to bring a conscious understanding of our own relationships with our mothers / fathers to the fore.
There will be an opportunity to introduce our mothers / fathers as individuals to the group. The invitation will be to bring them as a whole person (prior to your birth) through the sharing of a photograph. The photos will be displayed for the day as a group of men / women of their time. We welcome complexity and it's not necessary to have actually known your mother or father as we can work with the absence. You may also choose to bring your step-parent or adoptive parent or a chosen role model from when you were young, depending upon your personal circumstances.
We will look at our mothers and fathers in the context of their birth into what spiritual teacher Thomas Hübl describes as a 'pre-traumatised' society. We will explore ancestral trauma and its ongoing impact on both their lives and our own. There will be an opportunity to consider how this first foundational relationship plays out in our close adult relationships; through to the present day and bring this to our consciousness. With a mixture of structured exercises and discussion generated by the group's process, we will look at our relationship with our mothers and fathers as both child and adult. The exact direction of the day will depend on what participants bring as we will work collaboratively with what is in the room.
Please email for further information on any of the workshops or about supervision.