Let’s talk about something really close to home for us in the helping professions: wellbeing and what that has to do with your supervisor. I want to talk about how the research I’ve been reading really backs up what we all feel.
Why Your Supervisor is More Than Just a Boss 🤝
If you’ve ever had a supervisor who only ever talked about your caseload and ticking boxes, you’ll know that feeling of being absolutely knackered at the end of the day. It’s a bit of a bummer, really. See, professional supervision isn’t just about ‘task assistance’. The research totally backs this up. Beddoe and Davys (2016) remind us that it works best when it also provides “social and emotional support.”
This is because the ‘supportive’ and ‘restorative’ functions of supervision are where your personal and professional lives get all tangled up. Honestly, if you’re not getting a place to bring the emotional baggage from your work, you’re missing a massive piece of the puzzle. I mean, have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t need supervision”? It’s a big red flag, isn’t it?
Time to Sharpen the Saw 🪚
Michael Carroll’s (2014) work on ‘Restorative Supervision’ is primo stuff. He uses this great analogy about a person trying to saw down a tree but being way too busy to stop and sharpen the saw. Sounds familiar, eh? That’s what we do. We work so hard we get “beat,” as he says.
A supervisor’s job, in this restorative function, is to provide a place to “recoup, revitalise and re-energise” yourself. It’s literally about giving yourself the time and space to sharpen the saw so you can work more effectively and, you know, not burn out.
More Than Just ‘Burnout’ 🤯
We all know what burnout is. But what if that feeling is something deeper? Dean, Talbot, and Dean (2019) have this powerful idea of reframing clinician distress as moral injury, not just burnout. It’s not just about being tired; it’s the stress of working in systems that might not align with your core values.
A good supervisor can help you see this and not feel like a complete failure. It helps to understand that these feelings might be a response to systemic pressures, not a personal flaw.
This is exactly what Natasha Weld (2023) is on about with her talk of a holistic perspective of wellbeing. She reckons it moves us “beyond a generalised discussion of personal ‘self-care’ and helps reduce the risk of a neoliberal approach where wellbeing is positioned as the responsibility of an individual”. It’s about understanding that our wellbeing is tied to our environment and the organisations we work in.
The Supervisee Wellbeing Guide: What It’s About
This guide is for you, the supervisee, to help you take back your power in the supervision relationship. We’re going to draw on some of the best minds in our field—people like Michael Carroll and Naomi Weld—and move past that old-school idea that supervision is a one-way street where the supervisor doles out all the wisdom. We’ll explore how you can actively shape your supervision to meet your specific needs.
It’s not about piling more on your plate. It’s about, well, changing how you view what’s already there. We’re going to look at some practical, evidence-based strategies—the very ones I used myself to deal with the emotional and physical grind of our profession here in Aotearoa. The whole focus is on holistic wellbeing, because our personal and professional lives? They’re completely intertwined. You just can’t separate them.
What This Guide Will Cover 🗺️
The guide is made up of five main articles. Each one blends theory, lived experience, and strategies you can use in your supervision sessions.
- Part 1: The Five Dimensions of Energy: As a social worker, I’ve found it’s crucial to think about my energy levels. It’s more than just self-care—it’s about actively managing the various parts of ourselves that we bring to the mahi. Drawing on Michael Carroll’s (2014) work, we can think about this in five key areas: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and relational energy. As Carroll puts it, “Supervisees need to look after their physical, emotional, psychological and motivational selves”.
- Part 2: 8 Supervisee’s Essential Skills: This section will be all about the skills you need to get the most out of your supervision.
- Part 3: 6 Self-Care Routines: Moving past the clichés of self-care, we’ll look at simple, integrated practices that actually fit into a busy life. Drawing on Naomi Weld’s work on nervous system regulation, we’ll find ways to truly recharge. Weld (2023) points out that true self-care is more than a checklist and focuses on integrating routines that support our whole selves, from our nervous systems to our relationships.
- Part 4: 4 Supervision Strategies for Moral Injury: This is a huge topic. We’ll reframe distress not just as “burnout” but as moral injury—that pain from going against our deeply held values. We’ll talk about how supervision can be a safe space to process ethical dilemmas and systemic challenges.
- Part 5: 7 Ways a Healthy Culture Can Help: Finally, we’ll look at the bigger picture. We’ll discuss how to navigate difficult workplace cultures, advocate for change, and when to recognise that a new environment might be the best option for your wellbeing.
Conclusion: A Journey of Growth 🌱
Look, if you’ve ever been totally bogged down by your job, this is for you. It’s about changing supervision from a boring, compliance thing into a genuine path for your own personal and professional growth. We’ve made sure every bit of this guide is full of useful tips and a fresh way of thinking. Your wellbeing isn’t just a good idea, it’s a non-negotiable part of being a professional in the helping professions.
Beddoe, L., & Davys, A. (2016). Challenges in Professional Supervision: Current Themes and Models for Practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cpit/detail.action?docID=4518822
Carroll, M. (2014). Effective Supervision for the Helping Professions. SAGE Publications, Limited. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cpit/detail.action?docID=5163950
Davys, A., & Beddoe, L. (2020). Best Practice in Professional Supervision, Second Edition: A Guide for the Helping Professions. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cpit/detail.action?docID=6406182
Dean, W., Talbot, S., & Dean, A. (2019). Reframing Clinician Distress: Moral Injury Not Burnout. Federal Practitioner, 36(9), 400–402. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6752815/
Weld, N. (2023). Applying the Therapeutic Function of Professional Supervision: Attending to the Emotional Impacts of Human Service Work. Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cpit/detail.action?docID=7184836
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