7 Habits of an Effective Counselling Supervisor - Seeking Counselling for a Loved One

In Episode 288 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly discuss this week's three topics:

First up in 'Ethical, Sustainable Practice', Rory and Ken discuss the 7 habits of an effective supervisor.

Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Lucy Mosha to get an insight into what it's like to seek counselling for a loved one.

And lastly in 'Student Services', we look at how counselling training affects your personal relationships.

7 Habits of an Effective Counselling Supervisor [starts at 4:00 mins]

If you've been thinking about training to become a supervisor, here are some of the skills you'll need to be of best help to your supervisees:

Active listening - a supervisor will take up more of a listening role, building up a trusting relationship.

Constructive feedback - helping to inform your supervisees practice with feedback that they can act on. The feedback should be actionable, and helpful.

Modeling professionalism and ethics - your supervisor should be able to guide you, and should understand the ethics of your modality.

Fostering reflective and reflexive practice - thinking about what could've been done differently and how you can put that into practice. Helping you to meet the client with more humanity. This comes with a degree of gentle challenge from the supervisor.

Adaptability and flexibility - everyone's practice will be different. Help them to understand how to apply their theory, try to understand how your supervisee best learns.

Cultivating a supportive environment and a safe space - a supervisee should be able to tell you about things that don't go well without fear of judgement. Use thoughtful language when discussing mistakes or things that didn't go to plan.

Commitment to ongoing learning - you can't know everything, if a supervisee comes to you with something you don't know much about, go away and learn about it. Regular CPD will keep your knowledge current.

You are working in service of the client by helping to ensure they receive the best possible practice from your supervisee.

Seeking Counselling for a Loved One [starts at 39:08 mins]

In this week’s ‘Practice Matters’, we look at counselling from the other side. Rory speaks with Lucy Mosha about her experience finding a counsellor for a loved one, and the difficulties that came with it.

The key points of this conversation include:

It can be overwhelming to know where to start.

There is so much choice that needs to be narrowed down.

The idea that therapy is something that has to be assigned to you – there might be a reluctance to reach out on your own.

A fear of making the wrong choice.

It is comforting to be given the option to meet with a counsellor to see if they are the right fit for you, with the reassurance that if it doesn’t work you can look elsewhere.

Having the counsellor acknowledge how difficult it is to reach out, and the possibility of them not being the right fit for you.

The feeling that your difficulty isn’t serious enough to be seeking help, especially from charities.

This first meeting might be the only opportunity for the client to speak to a professional, having a bad experience can make it very difficult for the client to want to try again.

If you know what is triggering for the client before meeting, you should proceed carefully and gently.

How Counselling Training Affects Your Personal Relationships [starts at 59:55 mins]

In this section, Rory and Ken share some of their personal experiences with how going through counselling training can affect your personal relationships:

You are likely to undergo personal changes.

Becoming a counsellor can give you a new perspective of the world.

Your values might change.

Your relationships with others might change as a result of this.