SUPERVISION

Email: info@associationoffacilitators.co.uk
Tel: 020 3282 7128
Email: info@associationoffacilitators.co.uk
Tel: 020 3282 7128
Email: info@associationoffacilitators.co.uk
Tel: 020 3282 7128

A Rich Learning Environment

Our commitment is to support the good practice and professional development of all facilitators. We place a high value on supervised practice, and this standard is integral to the accreditation of our members.

Well-being

Maintaining personal well-being is a core facilitation competency. In our FACETS® model, the ‘S’ stands for support, which includes Supervision. (F=Facilitation, A=Awareness, C=Contracting, E=Ethics, T=Theory.) Commitment to good support yields a practice that is ethical, well-contracted, and raises awareness for yourself and for your groups.

This behind-the-scenes work is often invisible to client groups. As a result, allocating resources (time, money, attention) to supervision and self-support may be prone to neglect or delay, through “busy-ness” or through remaining in the “conceptual” realm of “what I should do (but haven’t)”. It is important that you actively and congruently seek to put in place supportive structures and use them.

Continuing Professional Development

The importance of supervision as a space for continuing professional development, includes, but is not limited to:

  • Examine your role and performance in groups
  • Review material from your client groups
  • Process experiences of the group facilitator role (whether these be real, recent, patterns, projected, anticipated, feared, etc)
  • Enquire deeper into your responses, reactions, attitudes
  • Self-regulation and attending to personal limitations
  • Insight into the relationship between yourself and your client groups/group members
  • Debrief difficult assignments, and discharge of stress

 

A Rich Learning Environment

At the Association of Facilitators we are committed to support the good practice and professional development of all facilitators. We place a high value on supervised practice, and for our Accredited Members, this standard is integral to their accreditation.

Continuing Professional Development

The importance of supervision as a space for continuing professional development, includes, but is not limited to:

  • Examine your role and performance in groups
  • Review material from your client groups
  • Process experiences of the group facilitator role (whether these be real, recent, patterns, projected, anticipated, feared, etc)
  • Enquire deeper into your responses, reactions, attitudes
  • Review material from your client groups
  • Self-regulation and attending to personal limitations
  • Insight into the relationship between yourself and your client groups/group members
  • Debrief difficult assignments, and discharge of stress

Well-being

Maintaining personal well-being is a core facilitation competency. In our FACETS® model, the ‘S’ stands for support, which includes Supervision. (F=Facilitation, A=Awareness, C=Contracting, E=Ethics, T=Theory.) Commitment to good support yields a practice that is ethical, well-contracted, and raises awareness for yourself and for your groups.

This behind-the-scenes work is often invisible to client groups. As a result, allocating resources (time, money, attention) to supervision and self-support may be prone to neglect or delay, through “busy-ness” or through remaining in the “conceptual” realm of “what I should do (but haven’t)”. It is important that you actively and congruently seek to put in place supportive structures and use them.

Support for healthy and effective practice

We encourage the widest possible definition of “support” and a healthy balance between work and rest. Over the years, in written self-assessments against FACETS® we note that facilitators have listed all of the following, and more, as sources of support: partners, family, friends, colleagues, holidays, sports, fitness, dance, creativity, art, music, reading, craft, nature, housework, charity work, community activity, spontaneity, routine, spiritual practice, reflection, meditation, yoga, learning and numerous specific, prosaic activities like watering the plants or walking to work. If you are working towards accreditation with us, you will have reflected on your support during your self-assessment.

Our training, and often our core nature as facilitators, can lean too far towards paying attention to others’ needs. Paradoxically, we may feel that we are “doing our job” by denying or neglecting our needs. This can be costly as it activates our shadow traits (such as denial, desensitisation, confluence, deflection, projection, and egotism), reduces our awareness/impact and, ultimately, over time, becomes unethical and potentially results in harm and burnout.

About Supervision

On our longer programmes, we encourage you to be intentional and directive about seeking and receiving appropriate and regular supervision.  We do not provide a list of supervisors, although some guidance is given below.  Your individual search, selection and relationship building with a supervisor is a valuable activity that can inform your self-awareness in some detail and depth.  In many ways, the process parallels how someone might seek to engage and contract with you as a facilitator.  Typical questions that will be in your/their mind will be:

  • Practical questions – where are they, can I afford them…
  • Quality/Outcome/Results questions – are they any good for what I need? (and anyway, what do I need?!)
  • Values questions – are our values compatible? Do I trust them?
  • Intangible questions – I don’t know quite what I want, can they help me explore from here? What do I talk about?
  • Style questions – Will they provide sufficient space, knowledge, wisdom, fairness, challenge… Is it ok to be judged by you?
  • Personal questions: Will they like me, will I like them, will I be criticised? Will I be seen to be doing my best?
  • Evaluative questions: What do I need to know about them before I decide and how am I judging their suitability – qualifications? Demeanor? Client list? Referral?
  • Planning questions: How do I see this relationship – short term or long term?
  • Motivation questions: Am I ‘box-ticking’ or more than that?
  • Shadow/Self-sabotage doubts – At my level/in my role/at my age, should I really need support?

Overall, a supervisory relationship should provide a safe and healthy environment for you to monitor and develop your own practice.  Other than to group facilitators, supervision training is offered to a range of professions such as managers, academics, health/social workers, counsellors and coaches.  We are not aiming to be prescriptive about what training or qualifications are required.  You do need to satisfy yourselves, and us, that your chosen supervisor is “qualified” in the following way:

  • Core conditions: empathy, congruence and positive regard
  • Relational warmth: concern, attention and highly focused on you
  • Education: able to help you to learn and develop in a holistic manner
  • Enquiry: open to questioning and working lightly and at depth as required
  • Co-leading: taking the general direction from you, leading at times, and encouraging you to lead at other times
  • Challenge: an opportunity to raise awareness to your defences, blind spots, shadow traits and any patterns of behaviour which hinder you
  • Practical: a place for you to develop solutions for practical issues or difficulties

The how, where and when practicalities arise from these core qualities.

Remember that a supervision session is to support your practice as a facilitator and we encourage self-regulation.  Accordingly, there is a learning agenda for you concerning how to best utilize the time with your supervisor and how you ensure that the relationship supports your learning.  An active supervisee is likely to:

  • Arrive with a clear agenda of the areas for exploration
  • Be noticing the difference in style between themselves and their chosen supervisor
  • Flex their own style in relation to their supervisor
  • Elicit feedback
  • Enquire with rather than learn from
  • Learn from the process of supervision as well as the content
  • Consider personal projections and/or assumptions that are placed on the supervisor.

A qualified supervisor may charge anything between £50-£150 or more for an hour.  Group Supervision may be £300-£500 for a day.  For a one-to-one meeting, you can expect to meet somewhere private, comfortable and professional (we would not recommend hotel lobbies) or online.

We recognise that practitioners have differing roles and requirements. For some facilitators, their supervision will be ‘in-house’ with a colleague, for others, it may be a peer learning group, for others it will be non-managerial supervision or counselling supervision.  For accreditation at Level 2 and 3, you need to undertake supervision.

Group supervision where you receive supervision in a group environment (and participate as peer support yourself) are highly supportive to group facilitator development.  Being supervised in a group will raise different responses and explorations than in a dyad so your responses to both setups is worth experimenting with over time.

A structured series of conversations with a manager or colleague can be supervisory as long as it is contracted well and the individual involved has a track record of supervision and/or coaching and is trained to offer supervision.  Supervisory relationships with those who you also have another relationship with (e.g. manager or colleague) should be for the short term, rather than long term.

Supervision – How to Book

An online one-to-one supervision session with us is usually one hour, but longer sessions and face to face sessions can be booked if required.

The cost per hour is £95 for members and £125 for non-members.  Accredited and Affiliate Members receive one free session per year as a benefit of their membership.

We also offer Group Supervision for existing groups, and this is highly conducive with the role of Group Facilitator. Group Supervision provides a rich environment for participants to experience themselves in a group role, and to replicate and review material that may arise in client groups. Within the group each individual receives opportunity to explore any issues pertaining to their facilitation practice.  Please contact us using the form below to enquire about Group Supervision.

Further Reading/Resources

The theory of supportive practice is important to know about, not least to be able to impart this knowledge to groups for their health. Theoretical references are provided below. One-to-one supervision sessions are available to book, and further supportive practices and experiences are offered on our courses, seminars and Learning Days.

Shohet, R. (2012). Supervision in the helping professions. Open University Press.

Proctor, B. (2010). Group Supervision. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Centre for Supervision and Team Development – www.cstd.co.uk

Association of Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS) – www.apecs.org