Practical Supervision: How to Become a Supervisor for the Helping Professions by Penny Henderson

by Penny Henderson

As a supervisor, how do you best support growth, learning and improved practice?

Paperback Bunko

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this for work as I supervise a number of my team and particularly the social workers. It is a practical book (hence the title) on supervision in the helping professions. It is therefore appropriate for nursing and health professionals, social care, counselling settings, as well as residential or day centres.
It is essentially a practical book with a great number of ideas, not original in themselves, but useful as a collection and broad in scope. No issue is covered in great detail, but there are references to follow up on, for further reading. There is also information on group supervision, supervision across organisations and professions and advice for new supervisors.
The practical aspects include looking at Learning Styles, making contracts, strengths-based work, choosing a focus (using Hawkins and Shohet's seven modes), a model for appropriate feedback, ideas about creative ways of working and Socratic Questioning to name a few.
There is also some interesting reflections on transference and parallel processes in the supervisory relationship. Adler's quote "to be human means to have inferiority feelings" is an important aspect of the approach. Overall the role of the supervisor is to ".. respect and value, notice and appreciate ability and potential."
This is a useful book to collect thoughts, consider approaches, follow up ideas and find references to more detailed work.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really accessible reference work for anyone engaged in supervision with dozens of solid hints and tips that I have marked up with rainbows of sticky notes. Plus owls on the cover. What more could you want?!