“Sharpen the Saw“
Stephen Covey would tell the story of a woodcutter who was commissioned to fell some trees. He cut 18 trees on his first day, followed by 15 and 10 over the next two days. He seemed to work harder but, his output was less. When asked if he had sharpened his saw, he replied he was too busy and had no time to sharpen it. Covey would urge we always take time to ‘sharpen the saw’ i.e. we should never be too busy that we neglect to maintain and renew the core skills of our craft.
Clinical Supervision is an essential part of our clinical practice and provides space for us to reflect and develop our skills, our formulations, and interventions. Good supervision is a place to become more proficient and reflect on the effectiveness of our approach, and hone our core skills of listening, understanding and connecting with our clients.
Our work is tremendously rewarding but, it can often be complex and challenging. Many difficult interwoven and, at times, painful and distressful issues will be presented by our clients.
As therapists, we need time and space to process our own experience and emotions and the impact our work has on our lives and on the lives of our clients. Investing in our own wellbeing, knowledge and skills will make us more effective and better therapists.
Supervision helps us to…
- make sense of our client’s difficulties.
- choose the most effective strategies to help our clients.
- refine your interventions and help create effective change for our clients.
- understand our own experiences, actions, and reactions, in the room and how best to respond to them.
- maintain our own wellbeing and self-care.
Supervision also enables us to…
- learn and develop clinical skills to integrate into our practice.
- add precision to our formulations and interventions.
- discuss and reflect on the latest evidence based research and how this might inform our clinical practice.
- provide a space to reflect on our practice and plan our own personal development.
My practice includes Individual counselling, Couples Therapy and Psychosexual Therapy. I work with clients with a wide range of mental health and relationship challenges. I trained in a number of integrative humanistic therapeutic approaches so, I work with a number of core modalities including Psychodynamic, Transactional Analysis, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Person Centred Therapy and Gestalt Therapy.
I am also a Clinical Supervisor and work with counsellors and therapists from different backgrounds, training and modalities. In my previous career, I mentored, coached, trained and, developed teams ranging from three to seventy eight people. I am happy to share my insight and experience of establishing critical relationships and working with integrity. My approach to supervision is collaborative and evidence based as is my practice.