Why I Love Supporting Fellow Counsellors- Supervisees With the Seven-Eyed Model of Supervision 🌻

I love a good think tank.

One of my favourite parts of supervision is when ideas start to flow and we can think together about what might be helpful for a client.

I use the Seven Eyed Model of Supervision to help us look at the work from different perspectives. Not just “What happened with the client?” but also what is happening in the therapeutic relationship, for the counsellor, between us in supervision, and within the wider context.

We might talk about different modalities or ways of working. Some I know well. Others may be areas my supervisee knows more about than I do.

And that’s okay.

I don’t believe a supervisor needs to know every modality to be a good supervisor. I can listen, ask questions and help us think critically about whether an approach is a good fit for this client, at this time.

My supervision is also neurodiversity affirming. I’m dyslexic myself, and I recognise that people think, learn and process information in different ways. I don’t see neurodivergence as something that needs fixing. I see different ways of thinking as bringing different strengths. Some strengths come across like a superpower, like hyper focus. 🦸‍♀️🤭

My supervisees bring their knowledge, experience, CPD and lived experience too. For me, that’s what makes supervision collaborative. It’s not about one person having all the answers.

I’ve now been a clinical supervisor for four years, and those ongoing supervisory relationships have been some of the most thought-provoking, rewarding and yes, at times funny relationships I’ve had. In that time, my passion and love for the collaborative process have grown endlessly.

It is an honour to sit alongside fellow counsellors as they work through the complexities of helping people develop greater self understanding and find their own way forward.

My counselling ethos is this: every coping strategy makes sense when we understand the story behind it.

Perhaps supervision is a little like that too.

We don’t always need to have the answer straight away.

Sometimes we just need to look at things differently and think together. 🌻