Supporting practitioners in developing and sustaining a health professional life for themselves.
How does it work?
As a practitioner, as in life, we experience many ups and downs. Professionally we often work alone and it can be challenging to find a forum to celebrate our successes as well as to review the darker corners of our working life. Supervision and mentoring is a deeply supportive way to help you develop and maintain a healthy practice, whilst creating the working life you want. Through facilitated and supportive self-reflection you will be able to gain greater understanding or yourself as a practitioner, celebrate your successes and safely explore and resolve any issues that may be affecting your work.
The process of giving yourself the support and guidance you routinely offer to others can be transformational. Many people who enter supervision feel immediately relieved, supported, and refreshed as they re-connect to their vitality and enthusiasm. It allows you to speak the unspeakable, whilst feeling you have your supervisor and/or your group looking out for you, walking alongside you and encouraging you to move forward.
Stages of Supervision Mentoring
We are able to bring any area of our working life into supervision, but some areas of practice come up more often than others. Initially moving from the training environment into practice can bring many varied and often unforeseen issues. Alongside the need to build expertise and confidence as a practitioner, we often have little experience in delivering a health based business.
As we become more experienced, we become busier and need to be aware of ‘burnout’ or compassion fatigue. We build more professional relationships so role and boundaries come into play more as do ethics, time management and confidence issues.
Group or individual support?
Group supervision has the advantage of the collective depth and breadth of hearing each of the group member’s experiences. Whilst the supervisor facilitates and guides the group, each member has a role in offering their support and insight. My experience has shown that whilst one group member may raise an issue, it usually resonates with other in the group.
Groups usually meet in person everyone one to two months dependent on the experience and time constraints of members. It is vital for the group dynamic that each member commits to attend each session for an agreed period.
Individual sessions allow more time for discussion. Additionally it can feel safer to open up and work through deeper issues on a one to one basis. Sessions can be arranged according to needs and availability. They can be conducted in person or via Skype/phone.
Is supervision mentoring for me?
Have any of the questions ever crossed your mind at the end of a working day?
- Was my response to that client helpful? Was it more about me than them?
- How am I going to deal with X Y or Z business challenge?
- Why has that patient arrived late/repeatedly cancelled /not come back?
- Why am I so exhausted/exhilarated tonight?
- I’m so worried about seeing that client again. What is it about them that I find so difficult?
If they have, and you’d like a forum to work through your questions, supervision, mentoring is probably for you.
In your session you are free to voice your mind. Together we gently review, reflect, adapt and respond to your work based thoughts, feelings and actions.
About me
I offer supervision and mentoring to both newly qualified and established health practitioners.
I bring all my experience as an Acupuncturist / Chinese Herbalist and running a multi discipline clinic to our sessions. My decision to train in and then work as a supervisor/mentor came from the benefits I experienced in my own supervision. In many of the helping professions, supervision and mentoring has been established as a valuable and effective tool for professional development and is counted as hours in CPD.
Do contact me for more information or discuss whether supervision is for you.
Phone: 07790363867
Email: Helenthomastcm@aol.com
The Southdown Clinic 