“We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.” – Carl Jung
You may well be in the helping profession and undoubtedly keen to explore your sense of yourself in relation to your work; or a manager interested in optimising staff well being and performance. As important as such an enterprise is, you might have already experienced what has been described as a “disconnect” between the sense of one’s “self” and one’s “skill set.” To date, clinicians across the helping professions have often attributed this ongoing struggle to the difficulty negotiating between concepts such as “clinical supervision,” “counselling supervision,” and “managerial supervision,” all failing to adequately promote constructive dialogue with the professional as person.
Here, individual supervision – defined as intentionally and regularly scheduled space to explore “relational practice” – provides the opportunity for the self and the skill set to be seen as integral aspects in the role of the “Caring Professional,” understanding that the personal can impact the professional and vice-versa.
I have worked within this framework across the caring professions, with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, and clergy.
Often less intensive and frequent than weekly analysis, one might want to consider a session of at least once a month for an hour or an hour and a half, ideally.