Learning to stay still: reflective practice in the context of supervision—integrating the personal and the professional

Clinical supervision plays a crucial role for professional development and is mandatory for trainees and qualified psychologists and psychotherapists alike. Its function and style can vary significantly and range from case management to the depth of reflexive supervision characteristic of counselling psychology and psychotherapy. While the literature has thoroughly described the purpose and the characteristics of helpful and unhelpful supervision, the relationship between the personal and the professional elements of supervision is largely ignored. Trainees often embark on their professional journey with an unclear and, at times, fearful sense of integrating the clinical and the personal. Yet, the two cannot be separated. This article aims to reflect on a personal journey in supervision and to bridge the gap between the professional and the personal. The reader can expect a very personal style of writing as I recount some episodes of my own learning and transformation, and I use the theory to make sense of that journey. Given that it’s in the intersection between the different selves that transformational learning is created, the profession ought to encourage and foster more transparent, reflexive dialogues.