Her Time Clinical Social Work Supervision and Mentorship
Why is Supervision Important?
Supervision “leads to mental and emotional education that can guide practical work, frees fixed patterns of experience and behaviour and promotes the willingness as well as the ability to act suitably, carefully and courageously” (Koster 2003).
Supervision is “a collaborative relationship that is characterised by mutual respect, genuine dialogue, attention to social contextual factors, and responsible action” (Szymanski 2003).
Supervisory relationships are a complex blend of professional, education and therapeutic aspects (Geldard & Geldard 2001)
****************************************************************
Whether you work on the front line bearing witness to people’s pain and trauma; you work with people who are sharing their experiences of pain and trauma with you; or you work with people who are living amongst adversity and distress and taking it out on you; these have an impact on the way that you work; what you take home from work; and on your ability to continue the work in the longer term.
No matter who we are or where we work, when we work with people deeply experiencing the heartache of an unjust world, we are seeing, feeling or experiencing their distress and pain. And without professional support and guidance this can transfer into our own stress and pain.
Emotionally unsupported workers can experience vicarious trauma and burnout as a result of ongoing work with deep emotional pain and/or traumatising events.
Vicarious trauma and burnout are caused by many things.
Something in the story or the action of another person that has triggered or awakened something in your own past.
Something completely against your own values and beliefs creating a conflict in the work, or future work you do.
In the ongoing holding of, or bearing the brunt of, too much pain and sadness over a period of time that begins to wear down your own ability to cope with life.
Or it can be working with people who project their own pain and suffering onto others through bullying, ongoing conflict, power over and/or control that creates emotionally and psychologically unsafe workplaces.
Vicarious Trauma and Burnout
Many of us do not realise when we are approaching burnout; or if we do realise something is up, we might ignore it because we feel we have to keep going, we can’t let the team down, people are relying on us, we are disconnected from what our body is trying to tell us, we are frightened to admit something is not okay, taking time for ourselves feels selfish or lazy when so many others are worse off, we feel guilty, or we identify too much with the carer role.
Some of the impacts of vicarious trauma and burnout on workers can be elevated stress and anxiety, anger outbursts, increased alcohol and drug consumption, self-harm, loss of productivity or passion, depression, over-eating, shame, low worth and self-doubt and/or other physical or mental illnesses that impact on well being, happiness and work/life contentment.
Quality supervision is not line management. It is the provision of space in which a worker, or a group of workers, can safely and confidentially share the pain and challenges of the work with someone outside of their organisation, who is a professional in the type of work that they do. This includes providing support for all of the heavy but human emotional experiences including vulnerability, anxiety, fear, anger, shame, guilt and despair.
External Supervision is also a place where you can feel comfortable being safely challenged and supported to see things differently, to critically reflect on your work, to unpack difficult cases and to learn new skills.
My background is in providing supervision and mentoring to domestic violence crisis and trauma workers, those working in dv refuge and homelessness, youth workers, women’s correctional centres, women's counselling, group work, or in psychoeducation and training.
I aim to provide a safe, comfortable, nurturing and confidential space in which professional workers and/or students can share and unpack their lived working experiences, whether that be debriefing what is happening for them emotionally, or using reflective practice techniques to map out concerns, challenges and/or ethical dilemmas that are faced.
Fees for individual supervision are between $170 plus GST per hour. Group supervision is for up to 4 workers at a rate of $350 per hour plus GST (minimum 1.5 hours).
Please contact me if would like more information.