Supervisors are often expected to hold complexity, support others and provide a secure foundation for reflective practice. However, sustaining this work also requires supervisors to consider their own support, professional development and wellbeing.
This self-access class creates space to reflect on what supervisors need at different stages of their professional and personal lives. It considers the value of supervision of supervision, peer relationships, professional guidance, documentation and insurance, alongside the challenges of managing multiple roles, ethical boundaries and organisational responsibilities.
The class also explores how supervisors can approach professional development with greater purpose and curiosity. This includes keeping up to date with changes in law and professional practice, recognising blind spots, reflecting on authority and power, and considering how identity, cultural background, neurodiversity and other differences shape the supervisory relationship.
Finally, the class examines the emotional and physical impact of supervisory work, including saturation, compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious trauma. Participants are encouraged to identify their own warning signs and consider realistic, restorative approaches to self-care that support sustainable practice.
These sessions are being developed as part of a wider pathway to supervision. At present, each self-access class can be purchased individually, either as professional development for those working towards supervision or as continuing professional development for existing supervisors. We will release further information about the pathway, including how the sessions fit together once the associated competencies and wider framework have been finalised.
Class Structure
The class is divided into three sections exploring support, professional development and self-care. Across the recorded presentation, participants are invited to pause and reflect on their own supervisory practice, including professional boundaries, multiple roles, power, identity and difference.
The final section considers the emotional and physical demands of supervision, including burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, before exploring practical approaches to sustaining wellbeing and professional effectiveness.
The class concludes with a 20-question multiple-choice assessment.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this class, participants will be able to:
- identify the forms of personal and professional support that can help sustain supervisory practice;
- consider how supervision, peer relationships, professional guidance, documentation and insurance provide a foundation for safe practice;
- reflect on their professional development needs, areas of uncertainty and potential blind spots;
- examine how authority, power, identity, difference and reasonable adjustments influence supervisory relationships;
- recognise signs of saturation, compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious trauma;
- develop realistic self-care and restorative practices that support their wellbeing and their work with supervisees and service users.
About the Trainer
Juliet Messenger is a COSRT Senior Accredited Member and Accredited Supervisor. She works in private practice in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, providing integrative therapy to adult individuals and couples, as well as supervision to practitioners.
Most recently, Juliet was Clinical Lead for Psychosexual Therapy at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, a role she held until March 2026. She has also worked as an in-house counsellor within a large local authority and at the National Theatre, combining counselling with staff training and wellbeing support. Her responsibilities included overseeing counselling provision and mental health first-aider schemes.
Originally trained with Relate, Juliet worked with the organisation for many years as a supervisor, trainer, psychosexual therapist and couple counsellor. She has also supervised student counsellors completing placements through organisations including CPPD Counselling School and Relate.
Earlier in her career, Juliet lived and worked in two therapeutic communities supporting people with acute and long-standing mental health conditions. This experience of holistic therapeutic practice significantly shaped her approach and developed her particular interest in attachment and systemic theories within both therapy and supervision.
