Supervision
If you are a therapist, you know the necessity behind supervision and you also know the benefits of supervision. You know this even better if you have had a great supervisor! Supervision to me is a very important part of the process of becoming a therapist, and not just because you get to learn how your supervisor might perform therapy. Supervision allows you to look at yourself and what you bring into the room with you each time you meet with a client. The ‘self of the therapist’ as we call it, allows you to see how you influence the system, observe what feelings and emotions come up for you with the different clients that you serve, as well as what comes up for you with your own personal experiences that could reveal some unhealed parts of yourself contributing to some therapeutic blindspots as a clinician.
Being aware of your own experiences and what you bring into the room is really important and a necessary component of supervision. It also speaks to being able to find the right supervisor where you feel comfortable enough to share that part of yourself and really get vulnerable. By gaining awareness of our own blindspots allows us to be even stronger therapists.
Here are some questions to consider when looking for a supervisor:
What traits do you consider a good supervisor to possess?
What theories do they operate from?
Would I feel comfortable unpacking some of my own experiences and challenges with them?
Where do I need to become stronger and can this person help me with that?