Supervision and mentoring is one of the important areas of professional growth in Britain and Europe today. Professionally it has been a normal part of counselling, psychotherapy and social work practice. It is increasingly to be found in related caring professions, medicine, nursing and for managers, educators and solicitors.

The course is run by two highly experienced and qualified supervisors, Julie trains senior staff in various Trust Hospitals, supervises supervisors, teaches supervision to psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists in Prague, managers, senior social workers and supervisors in Zurich and at the Iron Mill Institute. Sheila comes to the Iron Mill with a long experience in complementary health care, education and supervision. Sheila works with individuals, teams and organisations in the UK and abroad.

We model the supervisory relationship and create an ethical and warm environment in which to develop time to think and develop skill and excellence. From time to time, we invite other colleagues from the UK and abroad to contribute to the programme,

The full programme is externally assessed, and successful applicants apply for professional membership of the appropriate bodies.

This course has been delivered over the past 8 years to a range of professionals in the field of psychotherapy, medicine, counselling, social work, management, cancer counselling and personnel.

The Iron Mill Institute is an organisational member of the British Association of Counsellors, the European Association of Integrative Psychotherapy and the European Association for Supervision.

The format of the training is as follows:

•     Group process
•     Teaching models
•     Practice of models
•     Live case material
•     Supervised supervision
•     A secure base from which to develop professionally, to enjoy exploring, to increase skills and knowledge, confidence and competence
•     40 hours supervised supervision practice before the end of the Diploma course

COURSE AIMS

•     Have learned to identify their own needs for supervision and the purpose of supervision
•     Have become aware of the educative, supportive and managerial elements of supervision
•     Be able to intervene in appropriate ways in supervisory sessions and will be able to focus on the relevant part of the supervisory relationship
•     Will be clear about the importance of establishing and maintaining an ethical framework for practice
•     Identify a number of supervision models and the characteristics and feature of each
•     Be aware of philosophical underpinnings of such models and how they compare and contrast with one another
•     Be able to work with supervision frameworks that outline the focus points of supervision, the bands of supervision and the tasks/roles of supervision
•     Formulate their own model of supervision and maintain congruence between their theory and practice
•     Be able to critically evaluate the differences between line management supervision, case and clinical supervision and the ethical dilemmas that can be posed by someone covering two roles
•     Sensitise themselves to the implications of their behaviours and interventions of supervisees or coaches and review the impact of their supervisory styles
•     Be aware of ethical guidelines such as ethical principles and ethical codes and have a good working knowledge of one of these, eg the BACP Code of Ethics and Practice for Supervisors
•     Be able to work with particular situations so as to be aware of ethical dilemmas and to be able to isolate the ethical issues at stake
•     Formulate their own model of ethical decision-making and use it practically in their work with supervisees
•     Critically evaluate ethical approaches to supervision

COURSE OBJECTIVES

•     Be able to demonstrate the significance of supervisory practice in their casework, both as a supervisor and as a recipient of supervision
•     Be able to demonstrate an ability to contract for the supervisory relationship and take account of three-handed contracts
•     Be able to make a case to show the significance of supervision in promoting good practice
•     The ability to compare and contrast two different models of supervision and evaluate the significance of each
•     The ability to identify the key issue in a piece of supervision and minimise any possibility of harm
•     To identify the roles and tasks of supervision and create a document that helps a new supervisee understand what is on offer
•     To understand the significance of different developmental levels within the supervisory process and how that might affect practice
•     The ability to identify from Thompson’s list of philosophical underpinning to ethical principles, where an ethical problem is located
•     To understand the significance of swift action when an ethical dilemma has surfaced
•     The ability to create a safe supervisory environment where ethical principles can be discussed
• and addressed