I know the branding is not great! The practice of Supervision is derived from therapeutic and social work, where there is more of an understandable safeguarding approach.

But in coaching, the word 'supervision' does little justice to the nature of the work that actually takes place.

In my experience, coaching supervision - particularly in a small group - helped me to serve my apprenticeship as a coach. The impacts have been incalculably positive.

While my coach training provided incredibly helpful tools, concepts, and approaches, and client work provided the real-world experience of supporting actual humans, that was when I found something was missing.

I needed a different kind of learning space that helped me make sense of everything:

• Where I could reflect on my relationship with very specific, three-dimensional, paying clients (not theoretical avatars or other trainee coaches).
• Where I could feel supported and frankly, less lonely in this work (it's super tricky when we work from the kitchen table or the spare room!)
• I also needed other resources and choices for supporting clients more effectively (because I didn't know what I didn't know).

Over a decade later, I honestly don't know how any coach does this work without some kind of supervision.

Simply, it's ACES to have a small group of colleagues and a deeply experienced OG Coach in your corner. 

Coaching Supervision provides a private, specific space for you to explore your coaching work with clients - both active and prospective clients - supporting you to think about your effectiveness, your well-being, your choices, as well as the wider context of your client's lives.

You'll be able to make sense of the clients you feel a bit stuck with, or those situations where you feel entangled or emotional about clients, as well as bounce around ideas, methods, and approaches to expand your toolbox!

The 'official' three functions of supervision are known as:

Formative (supporting you as a coach): helping you to explore and grow from your client work. Exploring fresh perspectives, approaches and solutions and broadening your toolbox. As you develop, it's likely that your coaching is less 'tools' focussed, and more of an organic conversation that invites us into a deepened presence, the courage to say what is unsaid, and an awareness of what is happening between us and for each of us.

Normative (supporting your scope of practice): exploring wider systemic contexts, the limits of coaching, boundary choices, and ethical dilemmas that arise with clients. This also includes helping you understand how your own perceptions may influence how you’re approaching a situation.

Restorative (supporting you as a human): focuses on your well-being: restoring, re-energising and rejuvenating your energy, with space to share your frustrations and talk about awkward or difficult situations. Because our client work inevitably activates our emotions, supervision helps reduce the likelihood of having your ‘stuff’ come into sessions.

Inskipp and Proctor (2001), De Haan (2012) 

In my opinion, yes.

I believe if you are working with other humans, you need Supervision.

Coaching is relational - we support our clients, often through challenging periods of transition and growth and we are always impacted, often subtly, by the dynamics of the relationship we have with each client.

These psychological undercurrents inevitably create entanglements - where emotions, needs and expectations of one person are redirected to another person.

Supervision provides a space for us to become more aware of these dynamics, and learn how to work with them.

Most coaches who have regular supervision can’t imagine not having it.

I heavily relate.

Commitment to a group can feel extra crunchy. Many of us (me included) have had wounding experiences in groups, and so we hold some understandable trepidation.

For eight years my Supervision was 1:1. I was convinced this process was the bedrock of any good thing my work has brought to the world.

But then I spent a year in small group supervision. I feel like every single aspect of my being has exponentially expanded. My self-trust, my intuition and discernment with clients, and with my business especially. In particular, being held and seen in a group has healed something for me around needing to be 'the expert / the helper'.

I feel so much lighter - so much more JOY about my work. I am a HUGE fan! And the more I studied the research around the benefits of groups, I knew as I began my supervision training, this was the way I wanted to work.

Look, so many of us work alone, and most of what we see of other coaches is their marketing.

The communities we tend to find online are largely focused on business building, often in big groups where it's tricky to make deep connections. It's natural to feel comfortable only sharing the ‘Good Coach’ part of you.

Even conversations with our beloved coaching pals - while offering deep support and connection - might not always feel like it's safe to share all of you (eg: when you are flying high and your peer is experiencing lots of self-doubt).

Group Supervision allows you to see behind the branding curtain, to real-life relational, imperfect, human, coaching work. It provides a tangible sense of belonging to a wider coaching community, while also fortifying your personal coaching mission.

You'll be welcomed, held and supported no matter how crunchy group work feels 🙂

To make that decision, can I invite you to think about what specifically would really support you the most right now?

Because it's relatively straightforward to figure out the mechanics of running a coaching business. What we often struggle with is not what to do, but why we don't do the things that would help our businesses to flourish.

Everything we need to do to operate a coaching business, are also the skills we need as a coach.

We need to learn how to lead and motivate ourselves, make decisions, and experiment (with no guarantees of the outcome). We need to share what we do again and again. We need to get comfortable with receiving and managing money, letting go of control, making our peace with rejection and failure, and being more visible than the average bear (I did not see any of this on the brochure either).

We need to take responsibility for how we show up. We need to offer ourselves compassion and encouragement along the way.

These are all topics you are so welcome to bring to your Growth Edge Circle.

I am deeply experienced in supporting coaches like you to navigate through self-doubt. You'll be in such good hands.

I believe our relationship with every client is a potential source of our own growth, and worthy of reflection.

And the research suggests new coaches can exponentially benefit from Supervision because you build that reflective muscle early on!

We all feel out of our depth at times and - especially at the beginning of our client work - we can feel pressure to ‘get things right.’ Having a dedicated space to explore your concerns and learning can be a source of great comfort.

You'll have access to support that is tailored and specific for you - wherever you are in your coaching career.