My Supervision Philosophy 

My philosophy is existentialism, I believe that we, as humans, have choices for which we need to take responsibility in order to emancipate ourselves.  Reality is our consciousness in which we are all interconnected, and our individual (and possibly collective) external and internal perceptions are twined together.

Supervision is about enhancing coaches’ reflexivity. The more awareness a coach has about their psychological, social and systemic influences and their impact on their internal world the more effective they are and the more choices they have. I believe in  freedom, autonomy, egalitarianism, positive social impact, integrity and emancipation (seen as the liberation of people - women in particular - from oppression, domination and control) and this purpose is my sensitivity in supervision. Hence, the outcome of my supervision, when I feel that I added value to their practice, would be if the coach had space to explore their underlying beliefs, values and assumptions to enhance their reflexivity and self-knowledge, and if somehow raise coaches’ awareness of the issues of the importance of coaching to bring the positive social impact is also enhanced.

My approach to coaching is existential. In supervision I tend to attune to my internal felt-sense and to create a shared space in which what is implicit can surface in order to create greater awareness and choice. I do not believe in a generic supervision model as I believe that everyone is individual constructing their own meaning and reality, and relationships, through the lenses of their own beliefs, assumptions and experiences.  I mostly work in the mode 6 of the seven-eyed-model, using self at the core of my supervision (Hawkins and Schenk, 2021). The role of the supervisor is to listen and look at any deeper influences that they are playing out for the coach and raising the coaches’ awareness, if these influences are not consciously realised. It is my role as a supervisor to ask a coach questions that explore perspectives of underrepresented social groups (as per my conviction that coaching should be for positive social impact) whilst recognising the importance and validity of coaches’ different perspectives and egos (Bachkirova, 2021).