Recently a colleague asked “Do your supervisees do any preparation that you know about? If so, what?” I hadn’t really thought that someone might be curious about this, but once the question was in my mind, it didn’t leave.
The short answer is: some supervisees tell me about their pre-session preparation ahead of time, and some don’t. In the latter group, there are some who prepare for the session by themselves, and tell me about this at the beginning, and some who prefer to meet and work spontaneously. These two groups are very similar to face-to-face supervisees.
Maybe it’s the group who do let me know ahead of sessions what they want included that my colleague was more interested in. How they do this varies, and supervisees may use all of the methods below at different times, though most have a ‘generally preferred method’.
The shortest and simplest pre-session communication was:
‘Hi Anne, I would like to talk about endings in our next session’.
A bit of an ambiguous statement, as we are both of an age where retirement raises its head from time-to-time! I was glad that he started the session by writing ‘You probably wondered if I was talking about our ending or my endings with clients. It’s the latter. I am sorry I wasn’t clear.’
… read the complete story ~ http://issuu.com/onlinetherapyinstitute/docs/tiltissue11/52
This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of TILT Magazine ~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology.
Click here to read the entire PDF version of the Preparation for online text-based synchronous supervision sessions article.
Anne Stokes is based in Hampshire, UK, and is a well-known online therapist, supervisor and trainer and Director of Online Training Ltd. She can be contacted at anne.stokes4@btinternet.com.
