I have been a qualified British Sign Language/English interpreter since 2008 – however, since professional supervision is not mandatory within interpreting, it was some time into my career before I came across it. When I did embark on a supervisory relationship, the value of my monthly sessions became apparent very quickly, and this led me … Read more
I am a British Sign Language/English Interpreter who has been offering Professional Supervision since gaining a Diploma in Supervision in 2016. In August 2021, a tweet by @_intandem, describing an Advanced Programme of supervision workshops, caught my eye. I was keen to develop my creative practice and here was intandem offering a day’s training focussing … Read more
I have had an interesting history… I originally trained as a Physiotherapist. Not long after graduating I suffered a major Stroke which left me with significant physical impairments, one of which was that I lost the use of my vision. For me this ended my career as a physio and put me on a long … Read more
Over the course of my degree I can recall many a discussion between friends about the ‘abstractness’ of theoretical frameworks and whether, when qualified, we would ever really sit down and insert our thoughts and reasoning into a diagram full of haphazard blocks and arrows. Then as a newly qualified therapist, I did actually surprise … Read more
‘Training into Practice – Successful Supervision Re-structure The intandem ‘Are you getting enough (1)?’ training inspired and informed a reorganisation of our supervision structure. Before the training, we struggled to get a consistent approach to supervision in our small community paediatric speech and language therapy team. Those that had team leads as supervisors, may also … Read more
The motivation for writing this post was my experience around asking questions as a supervisor. I set out to understand what might be happening when a supervisee stated ‘Now, that is a really good question?’ Were they buying time to work out ‘the answer’ or had the question genuinely opened up the conversation for fruitful … Read more
I have been fortunate to have access to strong supervision throughout the majority of my speech and language therapy life. Reflecting on my supervision journey the high points have been when I have had a solid relationship with my supervisor; when the supervisor has been someone I have trusted and respected, and whom I have … Read more
Today, I am a 68-year-old retired Speech and Language Therapist, enjoying a fulfilling life encompassing a number of roles: wife, mother, grandmother, artist and volunteer in two groups for stroke survivors with communication impairment. Six years ago I was struggling with the concept of retiring from a hectic Band 8 SLT post in a large … Read more
Supervision. A word that used to fill me with confusion and at times anxiety. What do I say? How do I react? What are they thinking? Am I saying the wrong thing? Is this topic supervision-worthy? These were just some of the thoughts that used to swim around in my mind before and after the … Read more
Today, I am a 42-year-old married woman with two small children (son – 4 and daughter – 8) doing a part time masters in HR and looking after the children, house and my husband with all the organising of clubs, playdates, school bags, bills and house maintenance etc. that entails. Ten years ago, before having … Read more