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One of the many clinical services we offer at Psychology Associates is professional supervision. Following is a brief description of this service and some helpful links should you be interested to explore this topic further.
What is professional supervision?
Regular meetings with an independent person with training, skills, and knowledge to help you to reflect on your work practice with a goal towards improvement. Professional supervision happens outside of the workplace and is a confidential relationship. At the outset, you will establish a supervision contract that includes specific goals, frequency of meeting, payment arrangements, etc. Each session (whether monthly, 3-monthly, or 6-monthly) is centred around your goals and is followed with associated “homework” to assist you, the supervisee, to move toward achieving your goals.
Specifically, professional supervision gives you a chance to: review your work with an independent, confidential, highly trained professional; explore your feelings around work (such as excitement, frustration, anxiety, discouragement, or even boredom); receive objective feedback and guidance related to work issues/decisions; identify and plan for self-care if necessary; and/or develop professional skills (e.g., time management, problem-solving, managing relationships with others, avoiding procrastination) as well as obtain ideas and information related to competence, ethics, standards, etc.
What are the benefits of professional supervision?
Good professional supervision provides you with an objective, non-judgmental, and qualified perspective, offering both support (for your successes and your failures) and skills for improving your work performance. Supervision is about taking care of yourself, and about becoming more self-aware and skilled. Lack of supervision, on the other hand, can lead you to feel unappreciated, defensive, and burned out. This then contributes to decreased effectiveness at work and in other areas of life, increased absences from work, physical and emotional difficulties, more conflict among workmates, and numerous other problems.
Supervision ensures:
- less staff turnover
- less stressed/more effective staff
- less conflict in your workplace
- better productivity and efficiency for your staff
- better workplace relationships
- better job satisfaction
How do I organise professional supervision for myself or an employee?
Some workplaces pay for an employee’s professional supervision (either as part of an Employee Assistance Programme -EAP, or support an employee to seek their own supervision) but in other cases people pay for their own. If you have an EAP scheme at work, contact your Human Resources person to discuss the possibility of professional supervision. If there is no EAP service in your orgnanisation, see your work supervisor or manager. Or just ring us at 477-7120 directly to make an appointment.
Who can get professional supervision?
Anyone — in any type of work — can benefit from professional supervision. The only requirement is a wish to increase effectiveness at work. Here at Psychology Associates, we have wide-ranging experience in supervising GPs, business managers, nurses, Police, other psychologists, social workers, university staff, principals, teachers, childcare workers, mental health support workers, lawyers, and human resources specialists, just to name a few. Others likely to benefit from professional supervision include: team leaders, any physical and mental health practitioners, emergency service personnel (e.g., Fire Service, ambulance), those who interact frequently with the public, CEOs, HODs, politicians, public servants, etc. All our psychologists have their own professional supervision too!
Who provides professional supervision?
Our staff who are especially experienced and qualified to deliver professional supervision include: Nicola Brown, Tara Clark, Sallie Dawa, and Sasha Gold.
For more information and other perspectives on Professional Supervision, see:
A book about the importance of professional clinical supervision:
