Steve Freeman, Solution Focused Practitioner. www.stevefreeman.org.uk This article is late to press. It’s very, very late. I could claim that this is due to pressure of work, putting family first and any number of other reasons. The truth, however, is that the topic is overwhelming. This is the latest of several attempts that I’ve made at writing about supervision. And even now as the article is ready to submit I haven’t entirely succeeded. I’m the first to recognise that I should know better. I’ve been using, providing and researching supervision for decades. And yet…..when it comes to summarising the available information I’ve been stumped. For this reason I’ve decided to give a personal overview of the topic based on my reflective practice portfolio. This is produced as part of my nursing registration process. The contains a few references and other anchor points and observations of what works well. These are based on observation and feedback from both people that I’ve supervised and colleagues who work as supervisors. It’s worth considering what ‘supervision’ means. It isn’t ‘clinical supervision’ as described in much of the health related literature and yet it has common factors with it. Definitions of supervision vary greatly. For many practitioners supervision is… Continue Reading

By Helen Dos Santos NLPMP, Wellbeing & Resilience Life Coach   Staff at VOICES are people that are passionate about their work and care about the people they work with, but equally staff teams need to look after their own well-being. Being able to ‘switch off’ and ‘wind down’ can be difficult. Since the beginning of the project VOICES have been working alongside qualified professionals that deliver clinical supervision to the team. Helen Dos Santos provides alternative approaches to staff well-being, such as Hypnotherapy, Time Line Therapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming. Helen writes about her about her approaches and the recent sessions with the team: The staff at Voices of Stoke have amazing staff, achieving great results for their services users, but all too often working under very challenging and demanding circumstances.  This can have an impact on the general well-being of the staff, start to impact on their positive outlooks and has the potential to lower their energy levels. It’s essential to ensure a good all-round balance is achieved, and investing in mental wellbeing is just as important as looking after ourselves physically.  Taking time out to talk through issues, or practice some mindfulness and enjoy some quiet “me” time to still your thoughts is no luxury.… Continue Reading