Clean & Crafty Supervision Workshop


 The following (requested) feedback is from a CPD day for therapeutic Supervisors,
which was designed by myself and Tom Hanchen
 

First of all, many thanks to you and Tommy for not only making the day possible but also for generously donating your time. 

Secondly, subsequent reflection on the ‘team tag’ sequence led me to appreciate the harmony that seemed to flow when ‘our group’ was working together.

Thirdly, the day gave me focus to reflect on how I offer supervision…so I said to my supervisee ‘shall we start our session differently?’ His immediate response was ‘Oh no, you’ve been on some supervision training!’ We commenced by reflecting on the benefits of being in harmony as we worked together and then considered disharmony.  Having a meta-focus in mind seemed to help us both remain mindful.  I have not yet had any report back from him!

I hope the universe is singing tunefully for you. Margaret.

 

If I am entirely honest I nearly did not come along & my main, motivation was the CPD cert!

I am SO glad I did attend as the CPD cert became a by product rather than the main focus.

The key benefits to me are: 

  • Sharing ideas/concerns with like-minded people: Invaluable when working predominantly in isolation.
  • Fresh/practical ideas for facilitating/supervising individuals/groups: Many now incorporated into my practice.
  • Networking with fellow professionals: Good chance to debate topical issues.

The event was extremely well facilitated. Highlights for me are Team & Tag, Clean setup, What's on top (love that question applied to self too!!)

Hope that helps Best A

  Dear Michael and Tommy, I have three comments:
1. Great facilitation, maintained all day long, a great modelling opportunity, thankyou.
2. You kept the day experiential; focused on engaging with the stuff of supervision, and away from models (which can be found in plenty of books!).
3. I particularly enjoyed the morning session working in groups, the supervisee able to listen into the discussion about what they had talked about. The free flow of questioning that followed was in the spirit of NLP - steering away from "wrapping up" a particular issue and instead allowing the supervisee to process whatever happened to resonate in their own way and at their own pace.
Oh - and the venue was light and bright, and it felt like the staff were catering to the soul as well as to the stomach.  With all best wishes, S

For me it was a day of self reflection. I think that to become a supervisor one really needs to have some insight in oneself otherwise how can we be effective in challenging and supporting supervisees. I found the circular interview at the end very challenging not the actual asking open questions, even though I did start with a closed question! But rather how to ask the question in an open way, be clean and at the same time be able to direct a process.  This requires taking a Meta position and first position at the same time. As a supervisor, I can see this is a very useful skill to develop well. Not only that to use it consciously more often.

I very much liked the model of action learning outcomes.  Sometimes we forget what we did well. I think this should be at the centre of everyone’s mind as there is a distinct mind shift when someone asks that question. I think that supervisees in other modalities and indeed in NLP are not asked this which is a shame because it has great healing value and a great example for the supervisee to model for their practice.

I think the biggest impact was reacquainting with the model of logical levels. What I liked was the additions to the model integrating it with greatest levels of change. It gives a place to target and also a way of explaining things to clients or supervisees in understanding where they are operating. I think perhaps a lot of therapy is focused around the remedial (CBT) which unfortunately does not necessarily lead to a life change or evolutionary change, and often leads to relapses. This is a very good model to teach anyone that is in change management and even teachers in schools. I also was interested in the notion about how things e.g. identity and behaviour get conflated. One can see how easily conflation happens in young people especially when they do not have a good internal critic to buffer them. Mostly it is a practical model can be very easily applied to most operational style of therapy.

Overall the supervision day was not what I expected it was MUCH MORE with plenty of practical ways to facilitate oneself and one’s supervisees.  It will be very useful for me as I embark on the journey of becoming a supervisor. And what a great start to it.
  This is the first time since last week’s supervision workshop that I have had the opportunity to thank you very much for the time and effort that you put into the workshop. I was sorry that Tom was unable to stay for the whole day but it did not detract from a very useful day. I can comment that I have used most of what was taught already in my supervision practice and found it all helpful.
 
I can understand that there will have been a lot of time and effort that will have gone into workshop and just wanted you to know it was much appreciated.
 
It was also interesting to me that you’d had some involvement with A Course In Miracles.  I thought so at lunchtime and personally I have found that everything I was taught in NLP and from other sources was a preparation for the Courses understanding and message.  I have found it very helpful to my therapeutic practice and also in supervision providing a deeper understanding of our projections etc ­­
 
I wish you peace and contentment   Best wishes J
 

Hi Tommy and Michael,
​
Firstly, I acknowledge that I don't have a very high level of tolerance when it comes to attending training programmes, so I was therefore quite surprised to find this workshop not only enjoyable, but also helpful for my learning and development.

 It seemed to me that the 'unconditional positive regard' between the trainers mapped across the entire group, setting up ideal conditions for easy and enjoyable learning.

 The major beneficial factors for me included:

The approach was truly inclusive;
  • You explained the structure of the workshop and why it had been designed that way;
  • You specified the timings and stuck to them;
  • In all our discussions the trainers were also participants, in that they were keen to learn from others;
  • The trainers helped with the exercises, without getting in the way or pontificating;
  • It was a million miles away from the 'Me-Guru-You-Novice' syndrome;
  • The exercise that I remember as particularly helpful was the one in groups of 3, where 2 'supervisors' discussed a therapeutic issue presented by a third 'supervisor', who listened, but was not allowed to interrupt their discussion.  This was a great example of the massive benefit of 'naming the elephant in the room';
  • IT WAS FUN.

If you're thinking of running more elephant-naming activities, please let me know.