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Reflective Practice in Supervision
The best teachers are not outside of us – they are inside. Collaborative reflection in supervision can transform our experiences into learning. This practical book details three stances of reflective 1. noticing what's happening (the Mindful Stance), 2. analysing it and unpacking the assumptions that underpin it (the Consideration Stance) and 3. putting this learning into practice so that it becomes routine (the Consolidation Stance). Daphne Hewson and Michael Carroll highlight the importance of Reflective Space as one of six supervisory spaces (the others are Directive, Evaluative, Passive, Restorative and Active Space). They provide guidelines on creating safe Reflective Space and how to use a range of mini-tools to invite practitioner's to learn from their professional experiences. The book is written for both supervisors and practitioners – it takes two to tango.
311 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 17, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 4, 2023
I do periodically review stuff I read for work and this is one of those. It is an introduction to reflective supervision, actually quite a comprehensive one. It also comes with a companion volume, a toolkit, which is useful. The book is essentially collaborative and focuses on three particular stances:
1. noticing what's happening (the Mindful Stance),
2. analysing it and unpacking the assumptions that underpin it (the Consideration Stance) and
3. putting this learning into practice so that it becomes routine (the Consolidation Stance).
It is really the multiplicity of tools which make this useful. There are a lot of them and you can decide which ones suit and will be useful. Environments, frameworks and pitfalls are all covered. There are plenty of questions to ask:
“What do you hope for from this supervisory experience?”
• “What do you consider areas of strength in your practices, and what do you consider your growing edges?”
• “How might you feel about pausing to get grounded from time to time?”
• “Have you ever had any experiences with mindfulness?”
• “Have you ever had the chance to discuss how race, class, gender, and/or any other sociocultural category shapes your work with clients or co-workers? What was that like?”
• “Have you had experiences that were supposed to promote being able to see from multiple viewpoints? In supervision?”
• “What have your supervisory experiences been like? What about it in terms of class, cultural, or racial differences?”
• “Did you ever want to have such an opportunity? May I ask you why?”
Various models and approaches are covered and the authors have provided a comprehensive set of tools with examples.
1. noticing what's happening (the Mindful Stance),
2. analysing it and unpacking the assumptions that underpin it (the Consideration Stance) and
3. putting this learning into practice so that it becomes routine (the Consolidation Stance).
It is really the multiplicity of tools which make this useful. There are a lot of them and you can decide which ones suit and will be useful. Environments, frameworks and pitfalls are all covered. There are plenty of questions to ask:
“What do you hope for from this supervisory experience?”
• “What do you consider areas of strength in your practices, and what do you consider your growing edges?”
• “How might you feel about pausing to get grounded from time to time?”
• “Have you ever had any experiences with mindfulness?”
• “Have you ever had the chance to discuss how race, class, gender, and/or any other sociocultural category shapes your work with clients or co-workers? What was that like?”
• “Have you had experiences that were supposed to promote being able to see from multiple viewpoints? In supervision?”
• “What have your supervisory experiences been like? What about it in terms of class, cultural, or racial differences?”
• “Did you ever want to have such an opportunity? May I ask you why?”
Various models and approaches are covered and the authors have provided a comprehensive set of tools with examples.
June 11, 2023
Excellent book for an introduction to reflective practice. This book in itself can be seen as a reflective practice of the authors. The book comes with practicable tools that can allay the anxieties of supervisors who may feel they need to be the 'experts' in the room and instead foster reflective practice in their supervisees.
August 9, 2020
Excellent tools techniques and learnings for coaching supervision.
February 6, 2022
Thorough, well-organized, filled with clinical examples. A great resource for training in reflective supervision.
January 3, 2025
That'll teach me to judge a book by its cover! In fact, the man fishing quietly on the pier is a metaphor for negative capability (yay Keates references!) and a crucial part of the 'growing edge' in coaching and supervision.
RPiS is a fairly weighty tome and looks a bit dense. I was apprehensive about slogging through it for my supervision course* but the read is a lot easier that first glance might indicate. The authorial voices of Michael and Daf bring the theory to life through the diverse practice and life experience of two very diferent people who are clearly united by common goals and beliefs.
This book made me a little bit excited about starting my journey as a coaching supervisor. There is a helk of a lot to think about. But I feel like Daf and Michael have got my back.
Recommended for anyone working in the coaching space; it would certainly help with role definition when it comes to supervision!
*Irony. The reading list given to us in July cited this book as a key text. The updated reading list given to us yesterday - the day after finishing this book - removes it as a key text and replaces it with another £30 purchase. Fan bloody tastic. That said, this book has given me an enormous amount to think about, so I don't begrudge reading it.
RPiS is a fairly weighty tome and looks a bit dense. I was apprehensive about slogging through it for my supervision course* but the read is a lot easier that first glance might indicate. The authorial voices of Michael and Daf bring the theory to life through the diverse practice and life experience of two very diferent people who are clearly united by common goals and beliefs.
This book made me a little bit excited about starting my journey as a coaching supervisor. There is a helk of a lot to think about. But I feel like Daf and Michael have got my back.
Recommended for anyone working in the coaching space; it would certainly help with role definition when it comes to supervision!
*Irony. The reading list given to us in July cited this book as a key text. The updated reading list given to us yesterday - the day after finishing this book - removes it as a key text and replaces it with another £30 purchase. Fan bloody tastic. That said, this book has given me an enormous amount to think about, so I don't begrudge reading it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews