Sara Lodge - Coaching Supervision Services

These are the principles on which I base my approach to coach and consultant supervision - to give insight into my supervision practice:

In any profession where the primary work tool is the individual (coaching, mentoring, consultancy, etc) the most fundamental way of keeping that work tool sharp is through continuing professional development (CPD). Supervision is a key component of CPD.

We all develop and change personally and professionally as a result of life experiences and choices that challenge our view of the world and cause us to reflect and reevaluate (there was such a thing as personal and organisational change before consultants, coaches or therapists!). Supervision and other CPD is about being pro-active in challenging ourselves and reevaluating our view of the world, which helps us to increase our skills, awareness and understanding of what we do and why we do it. We then add value to our clients by passing that learning on.

Coaching supervision is not about coaching the coach.

As a coach/consultant supervisor I pay attention to the whole client/coach dynamic, including not just coach, client, client organisation and other interested parties, but also the possibility of transference and projection issues between coach and coachee, supervisor and supervisee, and to parallel process.

For me supervision is a place where there is:

1. Education – to support and facilitate the coach’s continuing learning and development, and to increase and improve skills

2. Support – to provide the coach with support in order to ensure high levels of performance and to avoid burnout in a potentially stressful roll

3. Administration – to promote best practice and high standards

The development of coach/consultants involves not just learning, but also ‘unlearning’ – this can include anything from a change of behaviour in response to direct feedback, to the exploration of beliefs and assumptions underlying particular behaviours which may or may not result in change.

Having trained in clinical Transactional Analyst, TA informs my work to a large extent. This means that I work from the basis of ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ – as you have supervision, so do I, as I coach others I have coaching myself. Coaching and supervision have nothing to do with being ‘OK’ or not – nothing to do with a lack of skill or competency and I feel it is important to model that to clients. They are to do with the recognition that we all have areas in which we can grow and develop, and the input of a third party can be vital to us recognising our own blind spots, games, unhelpful beliefs and assumptions about the world.

Supervision Accreditation

Sara has just started the post graduate certificate in Developmental Super-vision established by Professor Julie Hay, who among other activities leads the ICDSV - International Centre for Developmental Super-Vision. This programme is designed for those already qualified to about master's level, or equivalent, in a helping profession (e.g. coach, trainer, counsellor, etc). The aim is to develop a broad theoretical basis and the practical skills required to provide supervision competently to helping professionals and trainees in the supervisor’s own field of application. Julie and her team are currently awaiting confirmation of a conditional award by EMCC - European Mentoring & Coaching Council - for this course. They are also developing it as a postgraduate certificate, and extensions of it as postgraduate diploma and MSc, accredited by Middlesex University through the Professional Development Foundation. See www.icdsv.net for updates as things progress, or to find out more about the current programme format. 'I'm really delighted about this, and will be posting updates about my learning on twitter and facebook' says Sara