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The Role of a Supervisor

The following writing will be a self assessment of a supervision setting with myself in the role of the supervisor. The writing will study my thoughts, behaviour and feelings throughout the meeting. Emphasise will be placed on why certain outcomes occurred as well as assessing both the positives and negatives of the situation. However before this can be achieved its essential to define what is supervision. Supervision can be seen as the process in which a working alliance between Supervisor and supervisee promotes an arena for learning. The supervisee has an outlet to disclose and discuss their work and be offered supported and receive feedback. Support can be given to this definition when studying writings around the subject. One definition claims the process to be

“Supervision is a method by which a person, through regular contact with a designated supervisor is helped to develop an awareness of the situation within which they work, and of their own role and behaviour in it” ( O’Donovan, 2000 pg 8).

Considering the definition emphasis of the process is aimed towards the growth of the supervisee and very much reliant on skills and or experience of the supervisor. Studying the definition from my own perspective makes me apprehensive as to my own knowledge base and whether I’m capable of carrying of the process efficiently and effectively. To increase the chances of this being possible I believe it to be essential to having the session with a candidate who I have a working alliance pre-established. This practice is strongly linked to the idea of a professional relationship within which there is an agreement, were supervisee and supervisor share common goals and outcomes of the sessions. Egan (2007 pg49) writes about some of these techniques and ideals and how they can be used to improve the level of the working alliance. He writes

“Techniques that have helped the alliance include exploration, reflection... accurate interpretation, facilitating the expression of affect and paying attention to the client’s experiences” (Egan 2007).      

I believe the majority of these techniques can be implemented before the supervision actually commences through an initial meeting between the two workers. However before discussions take place around the process and the conclusions from it. I believe it is vital to assess my actions in choosing my candidate for the session.

The candidate I elected to carry-out the session with is a young, motivated eager to learn young male who is currently investing in his own youth work training himself. I strongly believe that the elected candidate can offer me some in depth feedback, providing me with a real unique opportunity to learn. Given the communication skills that this individual processes articulation of learning and missed learning can be clearly defined.  Logic and logistics have also played a role in the choosing of the candidate for example the young male works within the same youth board as myself providing me with some knowledge of his work sector something I believe I require at this stage to help with my session. Studying the relationship with this individual having worked together in the past I believe we have a pre-established “working relationship” should promote an arena for which to establish a working alliance. Naturally as with any candidate I understand that there are some concerns.

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Being relatively new to the experience of supervision the session could be overly basic and my role drastically altered. The candidate could also have a reluctance to open up through the fear of repercussions given we work for the same youth board. Other fears could manifest themselves throughout the session if not addressed beforehand. I believe it was essential to tackle most of the concerns (from both parties) before the session within an initial meeting. I do however feel most if not all issues were tackled, debated and explained within the initial meeting and the contract we agreed upon.

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