Reflective supervision helps us to remain effective, ethical, and self-aware in our practice. To slow down and process our experiences and feelings so that greater learning occurs.
To uncover and challenge our unconscious biases, and to improve our ability to set boundaries and feel heard and affirmed in the work that we do. But reflection is not always easy. Exploring the more challenging and difficult aspects of practice requires motivation, energy, and openness.
The better the supervisory relationship, the more reflective and open both parties can be. This role play provides an example of reflective supervision with an adult using family violence case practitioner. It focuses on how the supervisor invites the supervisee to become more reflective.
I thought we might go a little bit deeper today and do reflective supervision. Are you okay to do that? Yeah, sure. So I've been keen to give you an update on Jason, who I've been seeing for about a month now. So the police report and risk assessment indicate that Jason's partner, Sarah, and the kids are at risk of being harmed further, if Jason doesn't change. He recently left the family home after being physically violent towards Sarah. And how is he going with you? Well... He's attended all his weekly sessions and he's cooperative. That's a good start. How would you describe his behavior?
He's fairly calm and he's polite with me. But he is charming which is not good. You think he might be inviting you to collude? Yes. And whether he is like that with Sarah because he wants to reunite with her and the kids, I can see how his charm works for him.
It's good to be wary. Have you been able to work out how Jason might justify his violence? I'm not sure yet, but he has made the comment that all couples fight, which might be minimising his violence. And I did ask him to tell me more, but he became defensive, so I just backed off. I get that you don't want him to go into defense or shut down mode, where he stops listening.
What are you worried might happen if he gets defensive? That he will get annoyed and stop engaging.
Getting that balance right can be tricky. Has he indicated he might stop coming? No. Not really. Given the police reports and his reaction with you, what role do you think fear plays in your interactions with him?
To be honest, I felt relief when Jason is charming. I don't like it when he becomes annoyed because then it just feels unpredictable and unsafe. I do worry, though, that if he disengages and we lose sight of him, then Sarah and the kids are less safe. Thank you for sharing and for being so self-aware. Sometimes we feel vulnerable, which no doubt mirrors what Sarah and the kids have felt. I also think at some point fear affects us all in this work, either consciously or subconsciously.
How can I support you feeling safer in your practice going forward? It's common for practitioners to have emotional reactions when working with others. For instance, fear sits underneath a lot of our work and can be a barrier for having challenging conversations with our clients. Practitioners may not be aware of their feelings and subsequent reactions.
Reflective questioning can help us recognise and process them so that they don't become blind spots. The idea is to regularly reflect on all four processes of the KOLB learning cycle, which includes experience, reflection, analysis and action.
Moving from the surface to depth and shifting between them as required. How was Jason in your most recent session? He was more open and talked about the financial issues they were having.
And did your recent interaction with him confirm or challenge your recent thoughts on how he explains his violence? Well, he reckons he was stressed. And when Sarah asked for money for one of the kids excursions, he snapped. And he admits that this was not okay.
Have you noticed a pattern that indicates his violence is entrenched in his beliefs? I'm not sure. But he did mention that Sarah was hopeless with the kids, and he also mentioned that one of his kids is hard work and only he could control him.
What was your response? I repeated back the words ‘hopeless’ to him. So you invited him to reflect on his language? That's good. The use of words like ‘hopeless’ and ‘control’ is concerning. I also noted he might be controlling finances? Do you think he's putting her parenting down, as an invitation to collude? Yeah, possibly. Perhaps... I haven't been paying enough attention to the signs. I must admit, I've been more focused on building rapport. But I hate to think I've been colluding.
Do you think I have? I think it's good that you're asking that. It's very difficult to completely rule out being collusive. It's easily done. But I also think you could be more challenging with Jason inviting him to be more accountable. But I'm happy to hear your thoughts.
Maybe I could be more challenging. Can you think of other ways that you could respond when he criticises her parenting? You know, ways that minimise the risk of collusion but keep him engaged. Despite our best efforts, we don't always get practice right.
Practitioners want to do a good job and keep all victim survivors safe. Hence, we can feel shame when we realise that we may have inadvertently colluded or not engaged as we would have liked with clients.
Reflective supervision is key to identifying these moments. Exploring what happened in a non-judgmental way and discussing strategies for improving our practice. Going forward.. how might you revisit the conversation about Jason's comment that ‘all couples fight’? Do you think I can bring it up again after all this time? What are you worried might happen if you did? That he'll wonder why I'm bringing it up again. Okay, so how might you explain this?
Well, I could say something like, I wonder if we could revisit that conversation again. Yeah. And then I could ask him for more details on the comment and be curious about how he makes sense of the fights and his part in them?
Sounds good. All right. I could do that. Reflection encourages us to consider our impact on others, including clients and colleagues, and assists us to monitor the well-being of others and helps us learn from what happened and move forward in a positive way, keeping our confidence intact.
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