Supervision
Contract

Efficacious supervision must be a priority for anyone wishing to maintain an ethically accountable counselling practice of high professional standing - it is not just for trainee practitioners or those requiring remediation - and I wish to thank you for considering me as your supervisor.

I invite you to interactively co-create a safe space with me, for your professional growth through this supervisory process. I also invite you to co-create this supervisory contract - our agreement as to how supervision will optimally occur for you. Here are my suggestions and guidelines - please feel free to discuss any points that you would like explored, included, excluded or expanded upon.

THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLES THAT UNDERPIN MY SUPERVISORY FOCUS:

Whilst I have completed an approved Australian Counselling Association (ACA) course to be an accredited Supervisor, the model of supervision I most closely follow is that of Daphne Hewson and Michael Carroll’s Reflective Practice in Supervision, employing their philosophy, that the best teachers are within ourselves.

I want to offer practitioners a safe space to pause within their practice life, where reflections and vulnerability are not only accepted, but encouraged, as we give each other permission to question established wisdom, unpacking our beliefs with an awareness of the many narratives weaving our practice frameworks.

I aim to be a mindful friend, a staunch supporter with powerful challenge, to assist you to explore your therapeutic framework - creating a mindful-in-action-on-action reflection that consolidates into an improved reflexive practice framework for you.

Many of our actions are underpinned by unconscious assumptions that are often developed via the dominant discourses that surround us. Even our mindful reflection can be framed by our assumptions, that then shape our answers. My supervisory goal is to challenge us both to seek out these assumptions, and in examining them, to create mindful congruency within our practices and indeed, the supervisory process itself.

PROCESSES FOR RESOLVING ISSUES AND RELATIONAL RUPTURES:

Reflecting upon our practices in such a manner can be extremely challenging, creating troubling emotions and sometimes place us in a dilemma of how to move forward. To benefit from this form of courageous and rigorous reflection, we both need to monitor the supervisory alliance, ensuring that for us, it is ‘good enough’ to support such challenges.

I invite you to be present focus and attend to our supervisory alliance dealing with any ruptures in the here and now. Vulnerability in reflection has the potential to expose shame - so that either of us may be inadvertently seen as the instigator of shame, rather than a mindful colleague supporting reflection. Such a relational breach can be a mindful reminder to tend to our supervisory relationship.

If you find yourself pulling away, censoring or editing what you bring to supervision, or even dreading the imminent supervision session - please allow us to first tend to those feelings, thoughts and perceptions to create a safer space for us to continue to share. This in itself can create transformational learning.

Using a critical reflexion of self to identify how we influenced a situation is always a good place to begin tending to a relationship and the following questions may be useful to us both:

METHODS:

I will use an eclectic mix of tools and strategies to help you explore the issues you bring to supervision, however which strategies we choose on any one day will always be your choice.

I would encourage us both to employ the WHAM acronym when we are receiving feedback.

Welcome the feedback
Hear the feedback
Accept the feedback
Mindfully Consider the feedback … and from this, find your own value based practice answer.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES:

I see three major components of supervision, being: Client Care, Professional Standards and Professional Development. These are all best explored and supported through a nurturing focus on your learning as a practitioner.

SO LET’S BEGIN...

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS A SUPERVISEE:

This is your precious practice pause time - value it by being on time. Value it by putting aside all else to savour this session for your professional well-being.
Reflect on your ability to be present to most effectively utilise this time - the following guides may help you to prepare for the supervision session.

WHAT TO BRING TO SUPERVISION:

You will primarily be responsible for setting the agenda and I will really appreciate if you can email this to me the day prior to your supervision. Here’s some guides for agenda items :

Choose a notable incident from the list of suggestions above or indeed anything of importance to you - it can be just as fruitful to examine a routine, mundane, typical incident as much as challenging an out of the ordinary incident.

To help you best use the short hour we have together, write a succinct background, then a raw description of the incident (no analysis) and finally, the significance of this incident for you. Then we are ready to reflect on the incident together.

LIMITS OF CONFIDENTIALITY:

A sense of safety and confidentially are essential to permit the vulnerability of truly examining our practice frameworks. Of course confidentiality does not override my responsibility as a professional to report issues of ethical or legal concern. I would always attempt to first discuss such with you before we reported the incident. I strongly encourage you to bring issues of legal or ethical concern to me as soon as you become aware of them. Discussing what might help facilitate your ability to do so, will form one of our initial topics.

ASSESSMENTS & REPORTS :

In certain circumstances a supervisee may require assessment, such reporting will be provided in the same spirit as the supervision session - with a gentle focus on supporting you to enhance your counselling practice.

RECORD KEEPING:

I shall be keeping notes of each supervision session and would encourage you to maintain your own notes. Historically, these notes allow us both to ensure a breadth and depth of supervision topics and to assist us both to extend ourselves past comfort zones.

ACCESSIBILITY

Beyond our supervision sessions I shall be available for short 10 min phone conversations or emails to help clarify in the moment dilemmas - here are my contact details :
Mobile : 0427220052
Email : tess@eft2.com.au
In an emergency please call the police and/or an ambulance - then contact me.

PAYMENT

The fee for a 1 hour supervision session is $160/hr. (Including GST) - payment can be made via cash, invoice or card immediately after the session. For those wanting a 90 min or 120 min supervision session, the fee is pro rata the hourly fee.
Late cancelations (less than 24 hours) of a supervision session will attract a cancelation fee of $80 per hour booked. I invite you to discuss with me if the circumstances requiring cancelation have been an emergency out of your control.

REVIEWS OF THIS AGREEMENT

To assist us to maintain a relevant and empowering supervisory relationship, I will invite 6 monthly reviews of this agreement.

INDEMNITY

You are not an employee or agent of tess reilly-browne counselling (ABN : 70326633908) or tess reilly-browne and as such, you will indemnify tess reilly-browne counselling (ABN : 70326633908) and tess reilly-browne against any action from any client or yourself in relation to your activities.

AGREEMENT:

I commit to adopting a reflective mindset of patient, non-blaming curiosity and of attending to our supervisory alliance with an open-ended, wholehearted awareness of professional responsibility as per the code of conduct of the ACA.