Supervision

The coach/supervisor relationship is a professional, collaborative and formal partnership to ensure safe, ethical and quality assured practice.  It allows a coach to reflect on their client work and secure developmental and evaluative support to enhance their understanding.  It will examine broader perspectives, including those of the organisation, help transform their practice. 

Eve Turner Associates offers supervision to individuals and groups.  We work externally and also within organisations providing supervision to internal coaches.  We specialise in offering both face-to-face and phone supervision with substantial experience in offering phone supervision to groups. 

Our philosophy of supervision reflects our coaching philosophy.  We favour a facilitative approach in supervision as in leadership where the quality of the relationship is central and it is about partnership between equals.

Hawkins and Smith* place the purpose of supervision into these three broad functions:

1. Developmental - developing the skills, understanding and abilities of supervisees; understanding the client better, being aware of our own reactions and responses; looking at interventions and exploring other ways of working
2. Resourcing – responding to the effect of the client’s emotions; listening, supporting and challenging.
3. Qualitative– providing the quality control function; this could include looking at gaps in training, blind spots, vulnerabilities; ensuring our work is professional and ethical.

*Hawkins, P. and Smith, N. (2006) Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy: Supervision and Development.  Maidenhead: Open University Press. 

One of our favoured processes for supervision is the 7-eyed model, developed by Hawkins and Shohet*.  This encourages supervisees to examine their work from 7 different perspectives, or eyes: 

1. What is the client perspective? How do they present?
2. What were the interventions the supervisee chose to make, when and why?
3. What is happening consciously and unconsciously in the relationship between the client and the supervisee?
4. What is happening for the supervisee – how are they engaging and responding, and how are they affected by their work both consciously and unconsciously?
5. Next comes the supervisory relationship – what are the dynamics and what might this suggest about the relationship between the client and supervisee?
6. The Supervisor focuses on their own processes, feelings thoughts and images.
7. And we examine the wider context in which the client (and coach, supervisor) operate.  What can we learn from these systems and processes?

We also use the CLEAR model: Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action and Review and draw on the work of Petruska Clarkson among others.

Hawkins, P. and Shohet, R. (2006) Supervision in the Helping Professions.  (3rd edition) Maidenhead: Open University Press.

“A very gifted facilitator and coach with uncompromisingly high standards of practice and delivery who truly works to the client’s agenda.”

RJ,
NHS, Portsmouth

“Eve is a brilliant supervisor, skillfully guiding the coach through the process of supervision, clarifying and questioning to bring him/her to a place of deeper understanding.

Gillian Curtis,
Powerchange

“The objectives which were set were all met and I can honestly say that after each session I left feeling much happier, empowered and confident than at the start. I feel I have got back control of my life.”

Michael,
Deputy Director of Finance

“By supporting, encouraging and believing in my ability Eve helped me increase my effectiveness to achieve my objectives, develop more strategic vision, become more confident and see things from different angles.”

Jane Buxton,
simplyhealth group