Good Practice in Supervision with Psychotherapists and Counsellors

This book places the practice of supervision firmly within the culture of psychotherapy and counselling. It suggests and demonstrates, through discussion and vignettes, the essential relational requirement of good practice in supervision. It is a practical book for working supervisors, supervisees, trainees in counselling and psychotherapy and, most importantly, for trainers devising training courses for supervisors. Supervision in therapy and counselling is taken into a broad perspective of psychological, ethical and social concerns and the author, Don Feasey, draws upon twenty years of experience as a psychotherapist, in private and public practice, to illustrate his themes. Supervision is seen and described not only as a way of learning, a way of working with a therapist or counsellor to promote the wellbeing of a client, but as a deeply held creative psychotherapeutic relationship, of mutual benefit, between supervisor and supervisee alike. The book has a wide spectrum, examining the origins and social context of supervision; it discusses the place of supervision in training, the use of psychotherapy and counselling supervision in private practice and within NHS settings, it reviews the debate about the nature of supervision as a therapeutic relationship and gives strongly felt attention to issues of ethics. It pays attention to individual and group supervision. The term therapist is used in this book to indicate a broad view of counselling and psychotherapy and its practitioners; creative therapists get special mention. It also sets out to draw together therapists and counsellors, inviting them to share similar concerns in examining the nature of supervision and its place in their professional lives. Finally Don Feasey sets out his own vision of the nature of supervision and defends its place in the therapeutic milieu, arguing that its presentation, primarily, as an educational activity should be treated with reservation. He believes that due consideration must be given to the origins of supervision in the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. He advocates the 'Relational Approach' upon which he has based his own work as a supervisor for the past twenty years. The book contains number of valuable short personal accounts of supervision by experienced therapists and counsellors . These may be found at the end of the book in the chapter called Reflections.