This self-access class explores the particular complexities involved in supervising practitioners who work with couples, intimate relationships and different relationship configurations.
The class considers how organisational settings, professional requirements and supervisory contracts shape the work brought into supervision. This includes insurance, complaints procedures, confidentiality, professional codes and the responsibilities that may arise when a supervisee works across several organisations or areas of practice.
It examines how couple work differs from individual therapy, with attention not only to each partner but also to the relationship itself and the “space between” them. Participants are encouraged to consider how histories, identities, expectations, communication patterns, power and relational dynamics may influence the therapeutic process.
The class also explores competence, risk, boundaries, disclosure and the ways in which transference, countertransference, projection and unspoken material may enter the supervision room. Finally, it considers how the supervisor’s own identity, experiences and assumptions may shape their understanding of the work.
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 organisational context of supervision, including professional insurance, workplace policies, contracts, complaints procedures, confidentiality and codes of practice.
- The complexities of supervising work with couples and relationships, including attention to each partner, their relationship, their responses to the therapist and the wider relational system.
- Competence, training and scope of practice, alongside risk assessment, disclosures and the supervisor’s responsibility to challenge work beyond a practitioner’s experience or ability.
- What may be carried from the therapy room into supervision, including emotional responses, relational patterns and changes in a supervisee’s presentation.
- How supervisors’ own values, identities and relationship experiences may influence their supervisory practice.
The class concludes with a 20-question multiple-choice assessment.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this class, participants will be able to:
- recognise how organisational and professional contexts influence supervision;
- explain the differences between supervising individual and relationship work;
- support supervisees to focus on the relationship and the space between partners;
- consider contracting, confidentiality, disclosure, risk and professional boundaries;
- assess competence and scope of practice in couple and relationship work;
- recognise transference, countertransference, projection and parallel relational processes;
- identify changes in a supervisee’s presentation that may reflect the clinical work;
- reflect on how personal identity, experience and assumptions may influence supervision; and
- develop a flexible, ethical and responsive approach to supervising relationship work.
About the Trainer
The class is led by Anne Chilton, who has worked as a therapist for more than 40 years and as a supervisor for approximately 25 years. It is suitable for practising and developing supervisors, therapists, counsellors and other professionals involved in clinical supervision.
