There are two main strands that run parallel in the supervision training. The first addresses the personal and professional development of the supervisor and supervisee, and what may block the capacity for self-reflection. The second strand builds the transpersonal capacity in both the supervisor and supervisee through the development of a number of core meta-skills. The Greek word meta means ‘beyond’, so we use the term ‘meta-skills’ to describe capacities that are beyond the ego and across the threshold into higher forms of consciousness. These meta-skills build a highly-developed and enhanced capacity for overviewing the work with insight, creativity, new meaning and a strong compassionate container that allows the unexpected to emerge.
Personal and Professional Development in Supervision
Self-reflection is seen as the cornerstone of supervision, in that the supervisee is able to engage in critical thinking and do the work without distortions that might impact on his or her own process. In order to build a deep capacity for self-reflection, the training explores the personal and professional development of both the supervisee and the supervisor. The training also introduces a supervision diagnostic model to identify the blocks in the supervisee, focusing on which meta-skills one must build in order to clear these blocks. This enhances the ability to handle unconscious triggers, hidden wounds and relationship conflicts that impact on the professional work, and build a robust, collaborative and enjoyable supervisory relationship in which to carry it out.
Transpersonal Development of Meta-Skills in Supervision
We believe that supervision is an impossible task unless you have a ‘helicopter view’, or bigger perspective, from which to view the work. This transpersonal model builds the capacity of a compassionate and detached consciousness with a ‘helicopter view’, where all interpersonal work can benefit. Rather than viewing the work through the limited view of our ego alone, this transpersonal view enables the supervisee to look with fresh perception, dispassion and insight into difficult or stuck processes. Out of this expanded view, the supervisor and supervisee can steadfastly hold the complexity of the work and the multiple relationships involved.
Multidimensional
The training addresses the multidimensional process of supervision. It explores how understanding the simultaneous interactions between the clients, supervisee, supervisor, organisation and wider culture or context is important in order to have an awareness of the complete picture.
This is an integrative model where we discuss together how these process skills might be similar across theoretical models and concepts that the supervisor may already have. Through this experience of translating between models, the supervisor can be more flexible and able to integrate more easily into the model of each supervisee’s practice.
Process-Focused and Skill-Based
The training is experiential and process-focused. The task is to identify and unfold the lesser-known aspects behind each situation, in both the supervisee and the client. There are, in each of the eight modules, specific practical skills, concepts and language. We teach the theory behind building each skill, identify the potential deficits and give interventions and facilitation suggestions for developing that skill in the supervisor, supervisee and client.
Organisational and Cultural Change
Supervision can also be impacted by the organisational and cultural context. Therefore, the supervisor also learns how to identify and clarify any systemic issues that might be creating disturbances in the background. This training will provide a map and tools for understanding this context. It will show how supervision can become a powerful catalyst to enable engagement with the diversity of any organisation in order to bring about cultural change.