1. DAFT SUPERVISION WORKSHOP Friday
KATH WILLIAMSON AND LESLEY NOVELLE

2. What did we promise?
As practitioners we are all supervisees. Some of us are supervisors as well. This workshop will explore what we can do in supervision to make it work for us and develop good outcomes. There will be chance to practice techniques that can make the supervision experience more creative.

3. Aims To explore ideas about and habits in supervision
To consider what are supervisors and supervisees responsibilities in supervision
To have some fun and play with the ideas you may take to supervision.
Learn from each other.

4. Supervisor/Supervisee?
Which position did you come with an interest in hearing about?
What attracted you to this workshop?
Introduce yourself and say what interested you about this workshop.
(10 minutes)

5. Supervisor/Supervisee Exercise
Arrange into two groups
As supervisors or supervisees
Have discussion about the role and responsibilities of the group you are in (5 minutes)
Feedback key themes (10 minutes)
Lesley to write bullet points as group feedback

6. Supervisee Perspective
Identify practice issues with which you might need help
Become increasingly able to share freely (relationship?)
Identify what response you want
Become more aware of organisational context which impacts on practice
Be open to feedback
Monitor tendencies to justify, explain or defend
Develop an ability to discriminate what feedback is useful
Adapted from Hawkins and Shoet (2006)

7. questions/ 10 top tips
Should I prepare for supervision if so how? linked to function and purpose of supervision.
What is the purpose of supervision , i.e. training, peer, live, retrospective.
Is supervision therapy?
How is it contracted?
How is it recorded?
What do you tell clients about supervision?
How is quality considered and maintained?
Add audit?

8. What is Systemic Supervision
Contextually based
Contemporarily based
Looks at patterning in relationships and the influences on behaviour and beliefs.
It is reflexive and based on examining ones own relationships.
It focuses on inner and outer conversations and the importance/emphasis placed on these.
Gorell Barnes, Gill and McCann, Damien (2000) A portable guide for supervision training

9. What is supervision concerned with?
The Association of Family Therapy has developed guidelines for supervision which highlight four key areas with which supervision is concerned:
Practice
Personal Development
Theory
Ethics
(AFT red book, AFT code of conduct for Supervisors).

10. Function and Purpose
Carroll (1996) invites us to think about both the function and purpose of supervision:
The primary purpose of supervision can be considered as “ensuring the welfare of clients and enhancing the development of the supervisee in work”.
Its functions could be described as “ providing education, support and evaluation against the norms and standards of the profession and society.
Considering the context of the supervision is important

11. First and second order systemic supervision
As in therapy there has been a shift from first to second order thinking and onwards, this is also reflected in the development of systemic supervision.
In a first order or modernist approach the focus tended to be on how to act “upon” the client system as if from a position of objective detachment (Wilson 1993:174).
As social constructionist ideas have been incorporated into systemic practice, change has come to be viewed as co-evolutionary process

12. Exploring Problems, Possibilities, Restraints and Resources in Supervision PPRR

13. In the beginning was the PROBLEM
In the beginning was the PROBLEM! The systemic field was mainly (but not exclusively) problem focussed. Problems were explored in the ‘here and now’, as well as over time. Hypotheses tended to be around the function of a symptom/problem, and about what the ‘real’ problem might be ‘behind’ the ‘presenting problem’. Often families came with a problem with an individual and went home with a problem with their relationships too! Much intellectual and practical energy was given to thinking about, asking questions about, devising interventions into and seeing what other problems emerged when the original one went! The slide lists some of the ‘characteristics’ of this position. Interest in solutions were mainly on the ‘attempted solutions’ that had become problems. Released from these ‘attempted solutions’ people would find their own way forward.

14. From within the field came a gradual ‘movement’ away from a pre-occupation with problems and difficulties, and a movement towards a more active interest in creating solutions (refs), generating new narratives (refs), and appreciating the life enhancing abilities of any system (refs). Interest in problems gradually declined and practitioners became wary of ‘bringing forth pathology’ through asking too much about problems or engaging in ‘problem saturated descriptions’ which were situated in dominant discourses. Solution focussed therapy, Narrative Therapy, Appreciative Enquiry are three of the movements/models going in this direction. This movement has become very popular and invigorated the field in many ways at all levels of AMT.

15. A ‘neat’ line suggesting a movement from problem to solution informed/informs the practice of many people. Practice experience indicated this was not sufficient for all clients/situations. What other position could ‘mediate’ this relationship between problem and solution, and/or acknowledge the complexity of the process of change. RESOURCES created a ‘working triangle’ between the problem and solution

17. From within the field came a gradual ‘movement’ away from a pre-occupation with problems and difficulties, and a movement towards a more active interest in creating solutions (refs), generating new narratives (refs), and appreciating the life enhancing abilities of any system (refs). Interest in problems gradually declined and practitioners became wary of ‘bringing forth pathology’ through asking too much about problems or engaging in ‘problem saturated descriptions’ which were situated in dominant discourses. Solution focussed therapy, Narrative Therapy, Appreciative Enquiry are three of the movements/models going in this direction. This movement has become very popular and invigorated the field in many ways at all levels of AMT.

18. Allows for negotiation about whose resources might be required at different times
John Burnham ‘borrowing imagination’

20. PPRR Exercise
Participants form a small group - One participant shares a dilemma and one participant facilitates them to explore the dilemma (12 mins)
Other members of the group take different positions for listening
1. What resources are identified within this story
2. What restraints are identified within this story
3. What problems are privileged in this story
4. What possibilities are present and not visible or emergent in this story
The small group have a reflecting discussion on the conversation Where there any particular transition points in the story? What connections did they make across the quadrants? (8 mins) Discuss all together (10 mins) Feedback to the large group
40 minutes

22. Reflecting Teams as Supervision

23. References
Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (1996) The Red Book: Registration of Supervisors and Accreditation of Training Courses: Criteria and guidelines. London, AFT Publishing
Burnham , J. (2012) Problems – Possibilities-Resources – Restraints, A Versatile PPRRactice Map. Presentation at National Conference of Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice
Carroll, M. (1996) Counselling Supervision: Theory, Skills and Practice. London, Cassell.
Fine, M. and Turner, J. (1997) Collaborative Supervision- Minding the Power. In Todd, C and Storm, L. eds. The complete Systemic Supervisor: Context, Philosophy and Pragmatics. London, Allyn & Bacon, PP
Gorrell Barnes, Gill. Down, Gwynneth. McCann, Damian. (2000) Systemic Supervision: A Portable Guide for Supervision Training. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Hawkins, P and Shoet, R. (1990) Supervision In The Helping Professions. Milton Keynes: Open University Press
Neden, J. and Burnham,J. Using Relational Reflexivity as a resource in Teaching Family Thearpy. accessed