Supervision

What is supervision and who is it for?

Supervision is for coaches who are qualified or nearly qualified and are being paid for their coaching. It offers a safe and supportive space where you can enquire into who you are and how you coach. 

Supervision is 100% about you and how you work as a coach. In each session, you have the opportunity to stop, think, reflect and grow, in a safe, non-judgemental and nurturing space around how you work with clients in sessions. 

In supervision, you are able to bring your clients, in the form of case studies, into the room (full confidentiality is practiced) in order to discover more about who you are when you are coaching and what personal and professional work needs to be considered thus enabling you to be the best version of yourself when working with your clients.  Here’s a few examples you may bring to supervision, they are not finite:

• You found a session or client challenging 
• You didn’t know how to handle a difficult situation that the client brought to coaching 
• You found yourself feeling emotional about a topic the client talked about 
• You didn’t know what questions to ask a client 
• You’ve got some personal challenges that are impacting on your ability to coach
• You found yourself almost slipping into counselling mode 
• You realised you weren’t listening at level 5
• You’re having boundary issues and aren’t sure why
• You feel judgemental at times
• You find yourself trying to rescue your client 
• You find yourself wanting to give the client a bit of advice 
• You notice that mentally you sometimes make the session be about you rather than 100% about your client 
• You’re not sure you like or believe in your client

Just because we have reached a level of competency in coaching and have a qualification, doesn’t mean the learning is over.  In fact, when we gain our qualification, it’s just begun.

During my training as a supervisor the mantra shared was: “who you are is how you coach” which to me also means how you coach is who you are. If you will consider this statement for a moment as being true, it suggests our coaching, (subconsciously), may not be 100% about the client!  

We all bring who we are to our sessions. This includes our beliefs, values, experiences, disappointments, successes, failures and judgements. And though we are trained to be non-judgemental and we practise it diligently, that and other parts of us are present in each and every session we are part of.  Enter the need for supervision. 

All the above and more, can be brought to your supervisory session in order for you to gently explore what’s going on, why you may be struggling in some areas, what could have been done differently in a session, as well as what you’re doing well in your coaching.  Supervision helps unblock more of your blind spot, something that is very difficult to do by yourself.

Supervision offers a safe and supportive relationship where together, using different angles and lenses, it is possible to enquire into who you are when you coach. It offers you an opportunity to take a leisurely exploration of any topic you bring to your session, which will allow you to learn, grow and gain insights.  

In supervision, there is time and space to reflect, to go deeper, to slow down; and when we do this, we move into an alpha brainwave state which is where creativity and new ideas are generated.

Supervision offers a welcome break from the fast paced world of coaching which involves goal setting, ROI, measurement and taking action which can have a feeling of urgency attached.

In supervision, just having a safe space held for you so you can slow your thinking down, breathe, bounce ideas around, think aloud, process uncertainties and walk away with insights, aha moments and learning, has you leaving feeling rejuvenated, energised and knowing what’s next.

To find out more about how it could work for you either as part of a supervision group or on a 1-1 basis contact me