www.innovativeresources.org

By Roger Lowe and Russell Deal

Strengths-based Questions for Reflective Conversations

www.innovativeresources.org

By Roger Lowe and Russell Deal

Strengths-based Questions for Reflective Conversations

First published in 2014 by:

St Luke’s Innovative Resources137 McCrae Street BENDIGO Victoria 3550 AustraliaPh: +61 3 5442 0500 Fax: +61 3 5442 0555Email: info@innovativeresources.orgWebsite: www.innovativeresources.orgABN: 99 087 209 729

© St Luke’s Innovative Resources & Roger Lowe 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978 1 920945 72 5

Edited by: Karen Masman

Foreword

‘What is the most useful question I could ask right now?’ This common solution-focused line of thinking is made practical with this project by Roger Lowe and Russell Deal. And while the target application is supervisory relationship and process, this project is certainly adaptable to other contexts.

Lowe and Deal are seasoned human service professionals with impressive credentials. And while others might have attempted to force an entire book out of these generative ideas, the authors’ concept is to create something both practical and flexible … and they’ve succeeded.

A Vision for Supervision begins with a bit of theory and personal history, setting the stage for a project based on appreciative inquiry, solution-focused practices, and strengths-based ideas. This introduction scaffolds what follows. The project includes guiding ideas and questions on collaborating, noticing, and appreciating within the supervision relationship, and its depth (value) is far greater than its length (in pages). Admitting my bias, I am genuinely pleased with the ‘Solution-focused Foundations’ ideas introduced early in the text. In keeping with the project’s intent, I found this section kept the theoretical to a minimum and appropriately moved toward very pragmatic emphases and evocative questions.

BY FRANK N THOMAS

‘I see myself introducing A Vision for Supervision to practicum, internship, individual and group supervision, and supervision training contexts. Invent – adapt – learn – enjoy!’

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In the ‘Embedded Narratives’ section, the authors acknowledge inevitable differences between practitioner and supervisor stories as they both develop in the process. Using the metaphor of a lens (which, as a photographer, I appreciate), Lowe and Deal discuss framing and re-framing, accepting that there are times one seeks the close focus (on specific circumstances and experiences with necessary clinical decisions and actions) while other times call for a wider view (opening developmental space for reflection and appreciation).

Now to the heart of the project: Lowe and Deal have created meaningful connections and feedback with their deck of cards. Their intentions parallel Lynn Hoffman’s metaphor of ‘starter dough’—supervision is never a polished process, but it requires a beginning point that is intentional and rewarding.

Recognising that a supervisor/practitioner relationship begins in the middle, they first focus on establishing a respectful relationship that minimises hierarchy and encourages disclosure in what they call the ‘Beginning’ suit. The intent here is to recognise resources and create a future together that is viable and valuable, keeping with the strengths and solution-focused perspectives.

A natural shift from relationship to responsible teamwork takes place between the ‘Beginning’ and ‘Contexting’ suits. Here the supervisor/practitioner team collaboratively forms ideas and procedures that focus on best practices and the nuts-and-bolts of competent work as human service professionals.

Another important area that overlaps the ‘Contexting’ suit is ‘Sharpening the Focus’. Here the team moves from agreement on common ground and the accompanying rule-generation to a deliberate focus on decisions and actions that involve both practitioner and clients. Session and case consultation are key here, with deliberate attention to evaluation and appreciation.

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The process of reflection and storying continues with a suit the authors call ‘Widening the Lens’. Every solid supervisory relationship requires deliberation on change and developmental shifts, and this suit assists the team in taking a periodic metaview of the supervision journey and encourages re-viewing of the practitioner’s experiences.

Finally, as most supervision relationships are time-limited, the ending is addressed intentionally with a suit that invites self-supervision and a future focus on the common practitioner-to-supervisor transition.

The project culminates with cautions and permissions. The authors alert the reader to potential misuses of this card set including rote application and encourage adaptation so the suits, cards, and questions serve the supervisory relationship rather than enslave it. They suggest ways to play with the card set and tailor it for optimal use. Sustaining a postmodern approach throughout, the authors offer inventive ways to improvise while keeping the seriousness of responsible practice in the forefront.

All in all, this project is a wonderful supervision ‘Legoland’. Combinations are infinite, but the practicality of the cards and suits creates a much-needed structure. I see myself introducing A Vision for Supervision to practicum, internship, individual and group supervision, and supervision training contexts. Invent – adapt – learn – enjoy!

Frank N Thomas, PhD LMFT-S

Author of Solution-Focused Supervision: A Resource-Oriented Approach to Developing Clinical Expertise (Springer Science + Business Media, 2013); Professor of Counseling and Counselor Education, Texas Christian University (USA).

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Contents

Foreword by Frank Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Publisher’s Preface: On Supervision and Sacred Cows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Introduction: Putting Our Cards on the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Strengths-based Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

What is the Vision? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Solution-focused Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Embedded Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Supervising Self-supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Collaboration and Positive Parallel Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Complete Deck of Cards: Suits, Topics and Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Beginning: Establishing a relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Contexting: Identifying our accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Sharpening the Focus: Making each session count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Widening the Lens: Mapping our professional development . . . . . 42

Ending: Celebrating the journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

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Taking Care Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Ways of Using the Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Pre-supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Within Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Between Supervision Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Peer and Group Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

What Else? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

About the Authors: Roger Lowe and Russell Deal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

About the Publisher: St Luke’s Innovative Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

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On Supervision and Sacred Cows

I met Roger Lowe for the first time at a solution-focused conference in Singapore in 2012. We were both presenting, however Roger had picked up a throat infection so most of his presentation was delivered in little more than a whisper. Like the rest of the participants I had to concentrate intensely to hear what he was saying. I became mesmerised by what, for me, was a refreshingly different and challenging logic and set of questions he had developed to give shape to supervisory conversations.

At the time of Roger’s presentation, individual supervision, student supervision, peer supervision and group supervision were all happening simultaneously in different parts of my organisation—St Luke’s Anglicare. We even ran workshops on supervision for other organisations. However, in his presentation, Roger offered a range of reflective questions that had not fallen within the ambit of our models of supervision.

As a practising social worker for some forty-five years and a director of St Luke’s Anglicare for thirty, the concept of supervision was firmly embedded in

‘Supervising from a position of “not knowing” or “one step down” is part of St Luke’s supervision framework—together with other guiding principles such as reciprocity between supervisor and practitioner, non-pathologising, power-with and treating the practitioner as the expert.’

Publisher’s Preface:

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my DNA. Since my student days at the University of Melbourne in Australia, supervision had been imprinted on my understanding of the fundamental elements of ‘good practice’. To be supervised, and then subsequently to supervise, was an expectation that I never challenged. It was simply a norm that I and my cohort of students, and then colleagues, took for granted. It was simply what social workers and other human service professionals did and needed to do.

Yet a ‘disconnect’ had dogged me for many years and still casts its shadow over me even though I am no longer in a supervisory role. Putting it bluntly, the supervision I experienced was particularly poor.

As a student, the supervision I received in my fieldwork was very shallow. I have little recollection of being stretched in any meaningful way or even encouraged, let alone inspired. This might have just been bad luck on my part but talking to many colleagues over the years I am keenly aware that my experience is not at all unusual. Sadly, this shallowness continued into my early years as a practitioner. Even more sadly it became the model for much of my own journey as a supervisor. In short, I was not very good at it!

St Luke’s Anglicare is an organisation that has long taken pride in ascribing considerable importance to supervision and embedding it thoroughly (we thought) in our organisational culture. Over the years this has led to a search for models with touches of excitement and inspiration. In the early years there seemed to be very little on offer (perhaps we were looking in the wrong places?). But the discovery and incorporation of post-modern approaches including narrative, solution-focused and strengths-based models, together with the arrival of the technologies of Intensive Family Services, gave St Luke’s, for the first time, a more consistent practice framework.

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The concept of ‘parallel process’ became particularly important in creating a set of standards for what we might reasonably expect from supervision. Thus supervising from a position of ‘not knowing’ or ‘one step down’ is now part of our own home-grown framework—together with other guiding principles such as ‘reciprocity between supervisor and practitioner’, ‘non-pathologising’, ‘power with’ and ‘treating the practitioner as the expert’ (mirroring ‘treating the client as the expert’).

In more recent years we discovered the fuller articulation of these post-modern approaches in the seminal works of Frank Thomas and Jeffrey K Edwards. Thomas, in his book Solution-Focused Supervision: A Resource-Oriented Approach to Developing Clinical Expertise (2013) has provided a comprehensive translation of the array of principles that ‘define’ solution-focused approaches into the supervisory relationship. While recognising that such a definition is inevitably multi-faceted and hotly-contested, Thomas’ decades-long grounding in solution-focused practice and his collegiate relationships with Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim-Berg have meant that he has created an almost encyclopaedic analysis of the applications of solution-focused therapy concepts to the practice of supervision.

Edwards’ book Strengths-Based Supervision in Clinical Practice (2013) takes a broader but very complementary pathway into supervision. Edwards draws upon Appreciative Inquiry, positive psychology and psychotherapy, resilience theory and narrative as well as solution-focused approaches to locate supervision in a broader post-modern context. As well as being more eclectic it also charts his personal journey.

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Both books explore leadership, teamwork, group supervision and workplace issues. Both, therefore, have relevance to social work practice in public welfare settings as much as therapy in private practice.

The decision was made early on in the evolution of A Vision for Supervision not to attempt to encapsulate all the practice wisdom contained in these two outstanding reference books. The Vision cards are not a précis; they do not attempt to be reductionist in any sense. While attempting to honour the wisdom in the books by Thomas and Edwards, the authors of the Vision cards have brought their own unique experiences to bear in the attempt to create a practical, readily-useable tool for busy practitioners and supervisors—particularly those working in human service fields.

Coming from the domain of assessing trainee clinical psychologists and with his longstanding interest in solution-focused brief therapy, Roger’s presentation at the conference gently and respectfully challenged many of the assumptions I had made about supervision. Within the space of ninety minutes he had rewritten my expectations of what a rich supervisory relationship might contain and what it might generate.

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‘The Vision cards are our attempt to ask some of the key questions that may invite and encourage supervisors and practitioners alike to define their own preferred ways of doing supervision.’

Afterwards we talked about our respective experiences and wondered out loud what we might do with this seeming mix of strengths-based and solution-focused ideas. I did know that I wanted others at St Luke’s to be exposed to his thinking and so we set up a symposium that again was a fertile exchange. By then we had also created our first set of prototype cards that highlighted the array of good questions for stretching the boundary of supervision.

The prototypes continued to be refined up until the first Australian and New Zealand solution-focused conference on Queensland’s Gold Coast when we had the opportunity to co-present. More feedback, more refinement. Then Innovative Resources’ consulting editor, Karen Masman, joined the fray and the result was the vigorous interrogation of every concept, question and word. Throughout this process Roger remained unfailingly patient and polite, thoughtfully considering every suggestion we made but well able to question and challenge our ideas whenever he thought we had missed the point.

We are excited about the result. The cards have a hybrid vigour that has been generated by pooling the traditions of social work and counselling psychology as well as blending ideas from the complementary worlds of solution-focused and strengths-based approaches.

A Vision for Supervision is a new way of encapsulating ‘good practice’ in human services work. It invites both supervisors and practitioners to stretch their reflection and conversation. It has the potential to keep supervision alive and vital, to tackle distractions and to ultimately share ownership of a critical component of any professional’s growth and identity. It provides another vital component in the structures that are crucial to ensure that our clients are well resourced and honoured.

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We believe it honours the traditions of both solution-focused and strengths-based approaches to supervision. Is this asking too much? No doubt some will quibble with this claim and some may dispute our credentials for making it.

The Vision cards are our attempt to ask some of the key questions that may invite and encourage supervisors and practitioners alike to define their own preferred ways of doing supervision. Taking up the maxim ‘If it works do it more’, we hope the cards will work as a tool to build fulfilling and stretching conversations. If they lead to more curiosity, more questions and more theoretical grounding, they will have done their job.

In retrospect, my own social work practice and supervision would have benefited greatly had I had such a tool earlier in my career.

Russell DealCreative Director, St Luke’s Innovative Resources

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Putting our Cards on the Table

At any given moment in a supervision session, we may find ourselves wondering, ‘What is the most useful question I could ask right now?’

The aim of this card resource is to assist supervisors to find useful questions in a variety of situations. This, however, begs another question: ‘What do we mean by a useful question?’ The way we address this question speaks to our practice framework and philosophy.

From a strengths-based, social constructionist perspective, what we perceive as real and important is not compelled by objective conditions but is negotiated through dialogue and culture, and is therefore subject to change. Questions are fundamental in constructing—and changing—social realities. All questions carry particular assumptions and invitations. There is no such thing as an innocent or neutral question.

One variety of strengths-based work, the field of Appreciative Inquiry, has provided a number of guiding aphorisms including the following:

‘These cards encourage supervisors to persistently ask questions about practitioners’ hopes, priorities, achievements, strengths, resilience, resourcefulness, creativity, and ongoing professional developments. They invite both supervisors and practitioners to live in a world which values collaboration, affirmation, mutual respect, careful reflection and constructive challenge.’

Introduction:

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• We live in the worlds our questions create.• The choice of topics and questions is vital • As plants grow towards the light, human systems grow in the direction of their curiosity - toward what they persistently ask questions about.

The usefulness of strengths-based questions lies in the particular topics that they ‘persistently ask questions about’. The Vision cards encourage supervisors to persistently ask questions about practitioners’ hopes, priorities, achievements, strengths, resilience, resourcefulness, creativity, and ongoing professional developments. They invite both supervisors and practitioners to live in a world which values collaboration, affirmation, mutual respect, careful reflection and constructive challenge—irrespective of the topic under discussion and the circumstances in which supervision occurs. They can also provide a refreshing alternative to the varieties of deficit-based language that remain pervasive in professional practice and supervision. Our selection of cards, therefore, is neither neutral nor eclectic. We have deliberately ‘stacked the deck’, but in a transparent way.

In this approach the supervisor’s most valued expertise consists of process, not content. The supervisor’s expertise lies in asking questions that evoke the practitioner’s expertise. The supervisor’s questions assist the practitioner to find the answers they need.

This resource evokes a vision for supervision that we hope can support creative practice in the wide variety of contexts in which contemporary professional supervision occurs. Strengths-based dialogue is at the heart of the vision and provides the foundation. However, we hope that the cards can make a contribution to your practice irrespective of whether you (or those receiving supervision from you) explicitly identity with a strengths-based perspective.

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As always with strengths-based questions, we need to add the caution that the questions themselves cannot produce change in any predictable way. While they are chosen to invite certain kinds of responses, practitioners are at liberty to accept, ignore, decline or refuse these invitations. The cards and questions do not, in themselves, equate to supervision any more than a treatment manual equates to therapy. They are simply resources to be used and adapted to fit the unique context of a unique professional relationship. Therefore, we encourage supervisors to tailor the questions to their own circumstances; to reword and rework them, or develop new cards and questions, if necessary. We need always to remember that, while supervisors can ask a question with a particular intent in mind, the actual effect of the question is always unpredictable. As Steve de Shazer, the pioneer of solution-focused therapy, was wont to say: In the end, only the client can tell us if a question was useful.

Throughout this booklet, unless quoting from other sources, we have referred to the recipient of supervision as a ‘practitioner’. Many supervision texts use ‘supervisee’, ‘trainee’, ‘worker’ or ‘consumer’. We prefer ‘practitioner’ as this term bestows a greater degree of professional recognition on the part of those receiving supervision. The other terms tend to imply a passive or one-down status in relation to the supervisor. While recognising that the supervisory relationship may inevitably involve power dynamics and differences in experience, descriptions such as ‘supervisor/supervisee’ tend to reduce each person to a narrowly-defined relationship. Instead, we want to highlight the resourcefulness of both people independently of this relationship.

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‘Supervision…is a forum for reflection and learning. It is, we believe, an interactive dialogue between at least two people, one (or more) of whom is a supervisor. This dialogue shapes a process of review, reflection, critique and replenishment for professional practitioners’ (Davys & Beddoe 2010, p.21).

This definition places interactive dialogue at the heart of the supervision experience and is congruent with our approach. However, the supervisor’s practice framework will influence the nature of the emerging dialogue which, in turn, shapes the process of review, reflection, critique and replenishment.

In contrasting strengths-based supervision with other approaches, Davys and Beddoe (p.38) suggest that it is ‘essentially a “way of being” with supervisees where attention is given to power “with” rather than power “over”, and the environment is such that both supervisor and supervisee contribute their expertise to the relationship’. It is not a rejection or abrogation of the supervisor’s professional knowledge, but a way of being with others that is not distracted by it. Furthermore, it: ‘facilitates supervisees to find solutions within themselves based on their existing strengths and prior positive experiences’ (p. 46).

‘Strengths-based work is not owned by any profession or set of ideas, and different supervisors may draw upon quite different traditions.’

Strengths-based Supervision

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Davys and Beddoe (p. 42) suggest that in developing a strengths-based perspective, it is important for supervisors to reflect on the following:

• How do I notice and celebrate success with my supervisees?

• How do I talk about service users in supervision? What am I modelling about expectations of success and change?

• Does our supervision model match the way we approach our professional practice?

• How often do we highlight what is working well and the times of exceptions to problems?

• What different kinds of power do I utilise in this relationship and what is the impact of this? How important is it for me to be an expert? How do I invite feedback from supervisees and respond to it?

• How do we talk about challenging issues?

• How do I reflect on my own supervision process? What goals do I set for myself?

Compared with other frameworks, the above questions—and those featured on the Vision cards—place emphasis on the enabling aspects of supervision (its contribution to professional growth and development) as opposed to the managerial aspects (the monitoring and evaluation of performance). There is also a relative emphasis on the practitioner’s work and experience, rather than on the practitioner’s clients and their specific issues.

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A broadly-defined strengths-based approach might include contributions from a number of different fields, including solution-focused therapy, narrative therapy, resilience, and positive psychology (Edwards 2013). However, strengths-based work is not owned by any profession or set of ideas, and different supervisors may draw upon quite different traditions. For example, our selection of cards draws significantly upon the solution-focused tradition but extends this to include an emphasis on developmental and contextual themes.

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‘It is important to look beyond the resolution of immediate issues and search for opportunities to notice and appreciate connections, developments and turning points in the practitioner’s life.’

What is the Vision?

If our hopes for these cards were realised, and they were used to stimulate dialogue over an extended period of supervision, we might expect to see:

• a consistent use of strengths-based dialogue, irrespective of the content of the session

• the supervisor and practitioner working collaboratively to plan a direction for their work, and pooling their personal and professional resources accordingly

• attention to noticing and appreciating developments in the practitioner’s knowledge, skills or perspectives

• attention to noticing and appreciating developments in the way supervision is conducted (for example, the practitioner becoming more active in their own reflective processes)

• the supervisor and practitioner collaboratively reviewing the process of supervision and making adjustments where necessary

• the supervisor and practitioner relating their work to its professional context (for example, the various roles, functions and structures of accountability involved).

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There are a number of key aspects of this vision which can be elaborated:

Solution-focused Foundations Of all the contributions to strengths-based practice, solution-focused inquiry is the most ‘minimalist’ in terms of eschewing complex theory in favour of practical outcomes. It involves a consistent focus on cooperation, client-directed goals and client resourcefulness. Originating in the field of psychotherapy, its practices have been extended to many other contexts including supervision (Thomas 2013). In adapting the solution-focused perspective to supervision, Thomas suggests five important tenets: pragmatism, tentativeness, nonpathology, curiosity, and respect.

In relation to supervision, a solution-focused perspective would ideally involve:

• the practitioner deciding on the purpose of supervision and assessing its usefulness• the practitioner deciding on the focus and scope of any supervision dialogue• an emphasis on the practitioner’s growth and development, rather than the supervisor’s expertise or experience• encouragement of the practitioner’s idiosyncratic ways of working, when these are shown to be successful• the coaxing of expertise rather than the coaching of expertise, with the supervisor leading ‘from one step behind’• a persistent and detailed focus on the practitioner’s hopes and on instances in which this preferred future is occurring—that is, on what is working• the supervisor knowing and doing as little as possible, and restricting their contribution to the asking of questions and the offering of appreciation and acknowledgment.

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Embedded Narratives: Widening the Lens and Sharpening the FocusIf we imagine a supervisor and practitioner discussing a particular topic (for example, a counselling client, a work-related issue or an ethical dilemma), the resolution of that topic does not occur in isolation but becomes part of the ongoing story of the practitioner’s life—the ‘Practitioner Story’.

• How does the resolution of this specific supervision topic relate to the practitioner’s development?

• Is it a new kind of challenge?

• What new skills have been learned?

• Might it be a turning point in their career?

Each individual topic also contributes to the ongoing experience of supervision—the ‘Supervision Story’.

- Has the resolution of this dilemma required a change in the way supervision is conducted?

- Could it mark a transition in the nature of the supervision alliance or signal a new direction?

Another level of narrative relates to the professional ‘Context’ in which the work occurs.

- What other professional, organisational or ethical issues might be relevant in the resolution of any particular supervision topic?

- What other stakeholders are involved?

- Which other voices might need to be included in the discussion?

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Like a series of Russian dolls, we can picture a specific supervision topic as embedded in a series of broader narratives (Lowe & Guy 2002). The following diagram illustrates the connections between the immediate issue and the broader stories.

DIAGRAM 1

In the foreground is the supervision dialogue of each session, with its focus on the specific priorities of the day. In the background are the broader stories which may come into the foreground on occasion and when appropriate.

SUPERVISION DIALOGUE

PRACTITIONER STORY

SUPERVISION STORY

CONTEXT

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Using the analogy of a video camera, it has been suggested that therapy (and, by extension, supervision) encompasses two complementary processes: a widening of the lens and a sharpening of the focus: ‘The therapist shifts between widening the lens—opening space for new narratives and ideas—and sharpening the focus on solutions and action steps’ (Friedman 1997, p.8).

In adapting this analogy to supervision, we want to encourage supervisors to use each session to both sharpen the focus on the specific issues at hand and also to widen the lens, to take in potential developments in the broader Practitioner and Supervision Stories, as well as the Context of the work. It is important to look beyond the resolution of immediate issues and search for opportunities to notice and appreciate connections, developments and turning points in the practitioner’s life. These developments can often go unnoticed amidst the ‘busyness’ of supervision and the imperative to deal with pressing issues.

Supervising Self-supervisionThe aim of supervision of clinical work ought to be supervision of the therapist’s own self-supervision. As Confucius said, ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a hundred years’ (O’Hanlon & Wilk 1987, p.264).

One of the developments that will hopefully occur in the Supervision Story concerns the practitioner’s ability to usefully reflect on their own practice, and to use formal supervision to enhance this experience. The practitioner develops some additional kinds of expertise:

- learning to discern when assistance is needed and no longer needed

- learning to decide whether and how to implement a suggestion from their supervisor

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- learning to have more confidence in their own judgments, and

- learning to reflect on the changing relationship between supervision and self-supervision.

Over time, therefore, the supervisor’s role may shift from supervising the practitioner’s work to supervising the practitioner’s own self-supervision. The cards encourage supervisors to return to these themes and to invite this shift in perspective.

In the context of supervising therapists, Pond (1997, p.167) suggests: ‘As supervisors we can commit ourselves to behaviours that elicit energy from supervisees, helping to produce therapists who may be described as self-confident, able to generate appropriate custom-made interventions, and who know when to ask for help and how to get help’ . This description resonates with our emphasis on supervising self-supervision. The aim is for practitioners to become self-sustaining; to become more confident and creative in their work, to discern when they need assistance, and how to find that assistance. Rather than simply ‘being supervised’, they are encouraged to identify their particular supervision needs and priorities, and to make these known. By shifting to a stance of supervising self-supervision, the supervisor hopes to encourage the development of these reflective skills (Lowe 2000).

‘The aim is for practitioners to become self-sustaining; to become more confident and creative in their work, to discern when they need assistance, and how to find that assistance.’

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Collaboration and Positive Parallel ProcessThe literature on supervision contains a number of ‘similar but different’ terms that relate the dynamics of supervision to the dynamics of practice: parallel process, parallel practice, isomorphism (Edwards 2013; Thomas 2013).

‘Parallel process’ is the best known term, originating in psychodynamic theory and suggesting that the dynamics involved in a therapist’s struggles with their clients may be unconsciously replicated or paralleled in the dynamics between the therapist and their supervisor. This initially has a negative effect on supervision, at least until the supervisor is able to identify and work with the parallel process, which may then result in useful insights. A strengths-based perspective is more interested in the potential for this process to work in reverse: for the dynamics in the supervisor-practitioner relationship to ‘flow into’ the practitioner-client relationship. ‘Positive parallel process’ (Lowe 2000) refers to the ways in which a collaborative relationship between supervisor and practitioner may facilitate—consciously or unconsciously—a similar relationship between the practitioner and their clients.

Therefore, an important guiding principle for supervisors is to try to interact with practitioners in the same respectful and collaborative ways that they hope practitioners will use when interacting with their clients. If this does not happen, then the strengths-based content of a supervision session can effectively be undermined by a hierarchical or ‘power over’ process.

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Suits, Topics and Questions‘Who are we? Where do we want to go? How will we get there?’

The Complete Deck of Cards:

The complete deck consists of 40 cards arranged in 5 colour-coded suits. Each card features a topic on one side and 4 questions on the other, giving a total of 160 questions in the deck.

SuitsThe five suits are:1. Beginning: Establishing a relationship (11 cards—green)2. Contexting: Identifying our accountability (6 cards—coffee)3. Sharpening the Focus: Making each session count (10 cards—orange)4. Widening the Lens: Mapping our professional developments (7 cards—blue)5. Ending: Celebrating the journey (6 cards—cherry)

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Topics and QuestionsWithin each suit, each card features a selected topic on one side and four questions on the other. The questions are not intended to cover every aspect of the topic, nor to be used in a fixed sequence. They are ‘starter material’ to get the conversation going. While on some cards, the order of questions might contain a logical development, in other cases, the questions initiate different themes within a topic, and these can be explored separately. There is no expectation that all the questions on a card will be relevant and users are encouraged to adapt the questions or develop their own supplementary questions.

The aim of the questions is to open up different paths of inquiry, not to follow them to their conclusion. The supervisor and practitioner will develop each path in their own way.

We have chosen to place the topic on one side of the card and the questions on the other to encourage users to develop their own questions, in their own style. Users of the cards can simply spring into a conversation or reflection using the topic as the prompt. The questions on the reverse of the card can then be used to provide impetus for the discussion or to enrich the discussion once it is underway. For example, supervisors and practitioners might develop their own conversation on a topic, and then turn over the card to see whether our sample questions add anything that is helpful. Alternatively, they might study the questions we have provided first, then turn the card over and begin their own conversation about the topic.

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Order of PresentationBelow you will find a list of all cards within each suit, presented in a particular order. This is intended to provide a general sense of direction or thematic development that users may find helpful. For some suits in particular (for example, ‘Sharpening the Focus’) the order maps the authors’ conception of a ‘logical’ sequence of topics. However, the map is not the territory and the cards are not the journey. In any actual dialogue, there will be moments of changing direction, pausing to take stock, going back to the beginning, finding interesting detours, and heading down unexpected pathways. While it may be reassuring to have a general sense of direction, it can be more useful at times to get lost, throw away the map and head off somewhere on the spur of the moment. Therefore, while the cards are listed in a particular order, we have not numbered them, in order to invite flexibility and improvisation.

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1. BEGINNING: Establishing a relationship

At the beginning of a supervision arrangement, there are typically three key questions for a working agreement: Who are we? Where do we want to go? How will we get there? (Davys & Beddoe 2010). However, it is important that these questions do not become reduced to contracts, requirements and stipulations (some of these aspects are covered in the ‘Contexting’ suit).

This suit addresses these key questions in a strengths-based way. The eleven topics and accompanying questions invite reflection on the Practitioner’s Story to date, hopes for further practice developments, the contribution of previous experiences of supervision, hopes for supervision, and on the qualities and experiences that both supervisor and practitioner might contribute.

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Here are the 11 cards in the ‘Beginning’ suit:

Bringing strengths • What personal, professional and cultural strengths do you bring to your work?

• What experiences have helped to develop these strengths?

• How do these strengths make a difference?

• How do others notice these strengths?

Professional experience• What first attracted you to this vocation?

• What continues to attract and inspire you?

• What would clients and colleagues say they most appreciate about your approach to your work?

• What have been some highlights and turning points in your professional life?

Present situation• Where are you in your professional journey?

• What are your sources of satisfaction at present?

• What are your most difficult challenges?

• What contributions are you most pleased about making right now?

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Hopes and plans • What sparks your curiosity?

• Where are you heading?

• In your dreams, what is your ideal work situation?

• Is your current way of working supporting your aspirations for the future?

Hopes for supervision • How do you hope that our supervision might help enhance your practice?

• If our supervision could result in one significant or surprising change, what might it be?

• What do you think will be the best use of our time in supervision?

• Thinking about your hopes for supervision, what image comes to mind?

Experience of supervision• What experience of supervision have you had?

• What is your understanding of the value of supervision?

• Are there any stories or feelings about supervision you would like to share?

• How would you like our supervision experience to be different or similar to these stories and feelings?

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Monitoring supervision• How will we know when supervision is going well?

• How and when will we review our supervision?

• What signs would suggest we need to change the way we work?

• What other professional development might be useful?

Clarifying arrangements • Have we established our meeting times and places?

• Have we established how long our supervision relationship will last?

• When might we have to suspend ‘business as usual’?

• Are we clear about how we will manage privacy, confidentiality and disagreements?

Comparing our stories • What would be helpful to share about our professional stories, learning styles and cultural backgrounds?

• How do these compare in terms of orientation, strengths, skills and experience?

• What stands out in terms of similarities and differences?

• Are there areas where our strengths complement each other?

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Combining our stories• What are some promising signs that we can form a creative partnership?

• What could make this supervision experience unique for both of us?

• How can we best combine our respective strengths?

• Might we each have strengths that could get in the way of our supervisory relationship?

Contributing to supervision• How will you prepare for supervision?

• What do you think is the best way for you to contribute?

• What do you think a supervisor would value most about your contribution?

• What do you think you would value most about a supervisor’s contribution?

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2. CONTEXTING: Identifying our accountability

This suit can be used in conjunction with the ‘Beginning’ suit but may also be relevant on other occasions. It recognises that supervision occurs in a particular professional context (for example, a service provider or training organisation). As such, this context involves attention to formal requirements, roles, professional expectations and structures of accountability. In strengths-based dialogue, it is important that these constraints on supervision are discussed in a collaborative and transparent way. What might be the limits of strengths- based work and collaboration? How else might need to be involved and when? The topics on these cards expand the horizon by locating the supervisory relationship in a broader professional context.

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Here are the 6 cards in the ‘Contexting’ suit:Professional alignment • How do your professional values align with those of your organisation or colleagues?

• What would change if there were greater alignment?

• What does your organisation expect of you in regards to supervision?

• What do you expect of your organisation in regards to supervision?

Roles and responsibilities • Are we clear about our respective roles and responsibilities?

• What situations are we required to report elsewhere?

• How will each of us balance self-care with our professional responsibilities?

• Who else, outside of supervision, will we draw on for support and feedback?

Formal agreements• Do we need a formal agreement?

• Does it need to be seen or approved by others?

• What should it contain?

• When and how should it be reviewed?

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Feedback and evaluation• Is formal evaluation required?

• How and when should feedback be offered?

• What form will evaluation take?

• Who will have access to feedback and evaluation?

Respecting clients • How will we handle client-related emergencies?

• What will be shared about clients during supervision?

• What will be shared with clients about supervision?

• How will we know if it is ever useful or important for the supervisor to meet with a client?

Recording

• What records of our supervision do we need to keep?

• Do we have a shared understanding about the privacy and confidentiality of these records?

• Do we have a shared understanding about who ‘owns’ these records?

• What will happen to any records at the end of our supervision?

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3. SHARPENING THE FOCUS: Making each session count

This suit of ten cards is designed to ground or anchor each supervision session by establishing a focus, reflecting on specific issues raised, appreciating successes so far, reflecting on challenges, canvassing possibilities and reviewing the session. They are based on well-known solution-focused themes and questions which form a process that the supervisor can use irrespective of the specific content raised by the practitioner. They tend to focus on the specific topics or issues that the practitioner prioritises on the day, and to make each session count by following a similar process throughout. Looking at diagram 1, this suit informs the central supervision dialogue of each specific session. However, when opportunities arise, the themes can be linked with the embedded narratives of the Practitioner and Supervision Stories by using the ‘Widening the Lens’ cards or the ‘Contexting’ cards.

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Here are the 10 cards in the ‘Sharpening the Focus’ suit:

Opening the session • What are your main hopes for our work today?

• If these hopes were realised, what would be different?

• How will you know if our work today has been helpful?

• What will others notice?

Building on our last session • What’s been different since we last met?

• Is there something from our last session that you would like to re-visit?

• What have you tried out since we last met?

• What observations and insights have occurred since we last met?

Practitioner’s reflections• What are your reflections on this situation so far?

• What questions have you already addressed and what others do you want to explore?

• What do you hope our discussion will add to your own reflection and practice?

• How will you decide that you no longer need to bring this topic to supervision?

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Noticing success • While you may be experiencing challenges, what has gone well or better than expected in your work?

• How have you contributed to this?

• How have others noticed and responded?

• How do you notice and celebrate success?

Scaling change • On a scale from 1 to 10, where would you place yourself in terms of confidence, optimism, readiness, determination, or other desired changes?

• Where would your clients or colleagues place you?

• If you have moved up or down recently, how did this happen?

• If you were to move one step higher on the scale, what would you and others notice?

Appreciation

• What can you appreciate about your work this week?

• If your clients and colleagues were here, what would they say they have appreciated about your work?

• How have you achieved this in the face of difficulties?

• What is a genuine compliment that could be made about your work?

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Resilience

• When things have been at their toughest, what have you done to keep going?• How do you care for yourself in these situations?• What will you do if things don’t improve or get worse?• What helps you maintain hope in these situations?

Supervisor’s contribution• How are you hoping my ideas on this situation might be different from yours?• How will you decide if my ideas are helpful?• Suppose you wanted to try a suggestion, how might you adapt it to suit your style and clients?• How will you know that you are ready to use it?

What else?• What else is on your radar?• Has anything slipped through the cracks?• If there is an elephant in the room, how would we name it?• If we needed a new card for today, what would we call it?

Closing the session • What will you take away from this session?• What practical difference might this make?• What might be the next steps?• Do we need to plan our next session?

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4. WIDENING THE LENS: Mapping our professional developments

The purpose of this suit is to notice and appreciate potential developments in the practitioner’s work and in the ways in which supervision contributes and is conducted (that is, changes in the Practitioner and Supervision Stories). Particular themes may include changes to the practitioner’s sense of identity, the range of skills they demonstrate, the way they respond to challenges, and ways in which they utilise and contribute to supervision.

This suit complements the ‘Sharpening the Focus’ suit which focuses on specific issues, rather than developmental changes over time. The ‘Widening the Lens’ suit encourages supervisors to be alert to the possibility of turning points or significant developments in a practitioner’s life and to bring these into the

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conversation. These developments cannot be forced and will occur unpredictably over time. Therefore, this subset of cards will be used selectively and occasionally rather than regularly. For example, after a number of individual sessions using the ‘Sharpening the Focus’ cards, a supervisor may sense that the practitioner is now more skilful and has greater confidence in their ability. Some of the topics in the ‘Widening the Lens’ suit (for example, ‘Noticing changes in identity’, or ‘Supervisor’s observations’) might offer a useful segue to explore these potential developments. Since supervision began...

Here are the 7 cards in the ‘Widening the Lens’ suit:

Noticing changes in identity• How would you describe yourself as a practitioner now?

• How have you changed since we began our work?

• Are there areas in which you feel more competent and confident?

• What factors, within and outside our supervision, have contributed to this change?

Responding to challenges• Have you noticed any changes in the ways you respond to challenging situations?

• What new skills, strategies and strengths have you used to address particular situations?

• Does one example stand out?

• Have any aspects of supervision helped you respond to challenges?

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Supervisor’s observations • Would it be useful to hear my observations about how your practice has developed since we started?

• Would it be useful to hear my observations about how our style of supervision has evolved since we started?

• How do our observations match up?

• Who else might have some useful perspectives?

Noticing changes in supervision • What changes have you noticed in the topics you bring to supervision?

• What changes have you noticed in the way you prepare for supervision?

• What changes have you noticed in your goals and priorities for supervision?

• What changes have you noticed in the ways we each contribute?

Challenges in supervision• What has been the most difficult challenge we have faced in our supervisory relationship so far?

• What can we appreciate about the way we have both responded?

• Having worked through this situation together, how might it change the way we do supervision?

• Have there been other challenges that would be useful to discuss?

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Self-supervision• How do you decide whether to ask for assistance in a particular situation?

• What is a sign that you no longer need assistance and can rely on your own reflections?

• How are you learning to have confidence in your own judgment whilst respecting the views of others?

• How can our supervision help you to continue developing these skills?

How are we travelling?• Are we on track with our goals and priorities for supervision?

• Is our style of supervision sitting well with you?

• Are we fulfilling our professional roles and responsibilities?

• How are travelling in relation to our formal agreements?

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5. ENDING: Celebrating the journey

The final suit of cards is designed for use at the conclusion of a period of supervision or at a designated time of review. The topics are used to mark a transition in the practitioner’s life. As well as inviting reflections on how supervision has been useful to the practitioner, the cards include future-oriented questions about the practitioner’s own potential to become a supervisor. Again, the focus is on the broader Practitioner and Supervision Stories, and the theme of supervising self-supervision.

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Here are the 6 cards in the ‘Ending’ suit:

Looking back • Compared to when we started, how would you describe yourself as a practitioner now?

• How has this changed since the beginning of our work?

• In what areas are you more accomplished and confident?

• Is there a symbol or metaphor that describes your experience of our work together?

What’s worked? • What can we appreciate most about how we have worked together?

• What particular experiences stand out as the most important for you?

• What do you think has been most valuable for your clients?

• What can we appreciate about the way we have responded to challenges?

What’s left to do?• Before completing our work do we need to consult with, or inform, others?

• Have we fulfilled our formal agreements?

• Have we complied with other professional requirements?

• Is there any unfinished business we need to discuss or complete?

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Looking ahead• Ideally, what form of supervision would you like in the immediate future?

• How would this be similar or different to our present supervision?

• What do you see as the best combination of supervision and self-supervision for you?

• Have your priorities for supervision changed?

Becoming a supervisor• Imagining yourself as a supervisor, how would your style be different from mine?

• What will you take into your own supervision practice from our experience together?

• What questions have we explored that might be valuable in your own supervision practice?

• What will be the key strengths that you offer as a supervisor?

Marking a transition• How will we celebrate the completion of our work?

• How can we mark the transition into the next phase of your professional life?

• Who else would appreciate knowing about this transition?

• What legacy from our work will we each carry forward?

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Taking Care Before You Begin‘Questions, no matter how respectfully they are framed, can be very confronting; they can give rise to unexpected memories, fears and associations. Powerful emotions can begin to tumble out.’

It is important to emphasise that the cards are not intended to be either prescriptive or exhaustive in their selection of topics and questions. Any supervision session might take many paths and include areas not specifically included in the cards (for example, analysis of client problems, evaluations of the practitioner, discussion of ethical issues, formal teaching or coaching, and so on).

The cards provide a strengths-based foundation or background to whatever is discussed in the foreground. They provide a collection of major themes to return to wherever our journey momentarily takes us. The cards suggest themes on which we hope users of the cards will find their own variations.

Returning to the importance of collaboration and positive parallel process, a key principle is that the ways in which the cards are introduced and used should be congruent with their strengths-based content. In using the cards, we encourage you to keep several points in mind:

• The topics and questions are a resource that can be called upon to help re-focus, refresh or widen the scope of the conversation. However, they are not a substitute for conversation in the sense of a manual or a checklist of

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questions to be worked through in a routine way. Such a use would suggest that the supervisor is not fully present and is depending on the cards to conduct the session.

• The cards should not be imposed in a top-down or power over way. They are designed to be used with practitioners, not on practitioners.

• It is important that practitioners feel respected, however the cards are used. They should not feel that they are being examined or interrogated by the questions, but rather that the questions are interesting invitations on topics worth pursuing. The questions and topics are intended as conversation starters, not conversation stoppers.

• Some questions may need to be reworded or reworked to fit the context and language of individual supervisors and practitioners. For example, the very first question reads: ‘What personal, professional and cultural strengths do you bring to your work?’ We would not suggest that you simply read this densely-packed question straight from the card (and expect to get an answer!), but that you unpack its themes and develop a conversation around them in a style that fits for you.

Even with the most diligent attention to the points above, no hands-on conversational tool works for everyone. Each of us has our own personal taste in language, metaphor and graphic style. Great care can be taken, and yet a resource or activity simply may not work for a particular individual or group.

In addition, questions, no matter how respectfully they are framed, can be very confronting; they can give rise to unexpected memories, fears and associations. Powerful emotions can begin to tumble out.

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In using any conversational prompt it is always important to be aware of this potency and potential impact. We can all be caught by unexpected revelations in our conversations, and adopting a position of ‘taking care’ requires that thought be given to:

• The facilitator’s own comfort with the cards. Does the resource work for you? Are you comfortable using it for your own reflection about your practice? Can you imagine recommending it to colleagues, family or friends who may work in human services fields?

• Your knowledge of the materials. Have you used cards before? What did you discover? Are you familiar with these cards? Do you need to use all of the cards or are there some you can leave out? Is the order in which they are used significant or important to you?

• Your knowledge of those with whom you will be using the cards. Does your knowledge of the culture, age and literacy of those you are working with suggest that they will relate to the cards? Are you comfortable taking the risk that the cards may not work as you anticipate?

• The safety of the setting. Do you believe you have created a ‘safe space’ for people to talk openly and honestly? If you are introducing the cards to a group, what are the dynamics and mood of the group? Is there respect in the group? Is the timing right? Have ground rules such as listening and confidentiality been established? Have you thought about how you will enable people to ‘pass’—that is, to feel free to decline an invitation to share or comment if they wish? What if the cards elicit strong emotions—if this happens, how will you help ensure that people are cared for during or after the session?

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• Valuing people’s own interpretations. Have you thought about how to support people’s own interpretations of meaning while keeping the door open to consider other possibilities?

• Your expectations. How do you imagine conversations will flow? What if something different happens? Do you have an alternative plan if something isn’t working?

• Inclusiveness: If you are suing the cards in a group, how will you help ensure that ‘quiet voices’ are heard?

• Setting the context. Have you thought about how to best introduce the cards? Do you want to introduce them with a particular activity? Will you introduce them ahead of the first session so that people can browse through them at their leisure?

• Time management: Have you allocated enough time for each activity or question you wish to cover? How will you conclude an activity while ensuring that the practitioner has had the time they need or that each person in a group has had their turn to contribute?

• Evaluation: What do you think constitutes ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ use of the cards? How will you find out what worked for participants?

• Follow up: Is there any follow up that you will do with the individual or group before using the cards again?

• Records: Will the cards be used (or not used) in any records that are made of the supervision sessions? How will this be agreed on transparently with participants? Who will ‘own’ these records and have access to them?

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Ways of Using the Cards ‘How the cards are used, and when they are introduced, needs to be negotiated respectfully by all participants in a supervisory relationship.’

The intent of A Vision for Supervision is to identify some of the key questions that can add meaning and vibrancy to supervisory relationships within the domain of human services.

These questions have emerged from the post-modern practice philosophies of solution-focused and strengths-based approaches. They represent the authors’ attempt to apply the principle of parallel process. That is, we hope the questions mirror in supervision the hallmarks of ‘best practice’ as they have been articulated in direct service contexts.

How the cards are used, and when they are introduced, needs to be negotiated respectfully by all participants in a supervisory relationship. Traditionally, this is between two people – the supervisor and the practitioner. But increasingly, peer supervision and group supervision are stretching, and adding to, our understanding of ways that supervision can be constructed.

Whatever form supervision takes we believe it is crucial that all parties feel safe, well informed and in a ‘power with’ rather than ’power over’ relationship. Accordingly, the questions and cards have been designed to have application and relevance to all parties in a supervisory relationship.

There are no prescribed rules for using the cards. They might simply be placed on a desk or table during supervision and only referred to if ‘stuckness’ sets in.

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Or the whole set might be used sequentially throughout the unfolding of a supervisory relationship. The authors suggest that the pattern of use of the cards be determined by the users and that the motto ‘If it works do it more’ be the guiding principle.

Pre-supervisionA good starting point for working with any tool is to take some time to experiment with using it before introducing it to others. In the case of A Vision for Supervision, supervisors might like reflect on their own supervision practice as a way of preparing for a new supervision journey with another person or group. The various topics and suits can act as a set of prompts or reminders of potential themes that could be introduced, if appropriate. Also, supervisors may be aware that they can become stuck in the same conversational grooves, asking the same kinds of questions over and over. If this is the case, the cards can assist supervisors to move out of their comfort zone and experiment with different kinds of questions. In this and other ways, the cards can act as a form of self-supervision for supervisors.

• Simply lay the cards out in their respective suits, topics facing upwards, questions downwards. As you look over the array of cards in front of you, consider the context in which you practice supervision, and the ways in which the cards might enhance the experience.

• Which cards represent topics you tend to emphasise or give a lot of time to in supervision?

• Which topics don’t seem to come up in your supervision experience?

• Can you choose cards with topics you are most or least comfortable raising in supervision?

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• Reflecting on your own experience as a supervisor so far, which cards represent an area of supervision in which you feel you have been most or least useful to the practitioner or student?

• Which questions do you typically ask?

• Which questions do you tend to return to again and again?

• Can you identify cards with questions you have never asked, or would never ask? Why not? Would you consider incorporating them and if so, how and when?

• Which question would you most/least like a supervisor to ask you?

It is important to be mindful that when students or practitioners are entering into supervision for the first time they can be fearful and anxious. The reasons for this might be numerous – hearing negative reports about others’ experiences, lack of confidence, fear of being judged, self-doubts and so on.

If supervision is a new and novel experience for the practitioner, it can be experienced as very daunting. If the student or practitioner has experienced previous supervision in any setting that has been constructed in terms of control, conformity, criticism and power-over, their expectations may well be jaundiced.

‘In the case of A Vision for Supervision, supervisors might like reflect on their own supervision practice as a way of preparing for a new supervision journey with another person or group.’

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So the cards and booklet from A Vision for Supervision may have a role to play in allaying such fears even before supervision commences. The student or practitioner may be offered the entire set or perhaps only the ‘Beginning’ suit to take away and use as a basis for their preparation for the first session, with such prompts as:

• These cards will give you an idea of some of the territory we will cover in our supervision. Would you like to take them away and browse at your leisure before we meet for our first session?

• We will address many of the topics in the ‘Beginning’ suit in our first session. You may wish to gently reflect on your responses to some of them ahead of time.

• Are there any 2 or 3 cards in the ‘Beginning’ suit that you feel are particularly important for us to address in our first session?

• Are there any questions or topics not addressed in the ‘Beginning’ suit that you would like us to bring up in our first session?

Using the cards in this way to prepare for the beginning of supervision may provide a significant basis for creating a context of safety and respect, offering assurance that the tone of the supervisory conversations will not be condemnatory or judgmental. For many people, it may also generate a sense of excitement that the supervisory setting will provide an opportunity for invaluable exploration, learning and growth.

It may also provide the student or practitioner the real option of deciding that a solution-focused approach may not work for them.

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Within Supervision SessionsThe cards can be introduced as a potential tool or resource that might assist the supervision process. Supervisors can explain and demonstrate the potential contribution of the cards and discuss options for their possible use. These might include:

• laying out the cards on a table at every supervision session as a regular menu from which the most relevant could be selected by supervisor and practitioner

• using the cards occasionally (for example, every third or fourth session) to refocus on key themes or to review change

• using the cards on an ‘as needs’ basis to help with impasses or difficulties, or to stimulate new directions.

While there is not a prescribed sequence for using the cards, they have been themed in a way that suggests relevance to different stages of supervision. Practitioners and supervisors might agree to begin their engagement with the cards by working collaboratively through the ‘Beginning’ suit. This could be done using an agreed number of cards per session, or one card after another in a sequence with time allocated according to the perceived relevance of the questions. Both parties can use the cards to describe their experience and expectations of supervision.

The authors imagine that over the course of any supervisory relationship the cards and the questions will vary in their usefulness and relevance.

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Here are some ideas for how you might use the cards during a supervision session:

• From the menu of cards on the table, the supervisor and practitioner could select a number of cards that are priorities for them, and initiate a discussion.

• Some cards might be selected for reflection between sessions and for discussion at the next session. (Please see the next section for suggestions on using the cards between sessions).

• The cards could be considered in silence at the beginning of a session as an exercise in orienting to supervision and reflecting on priorities

• If the supervision process has become predictable, the supervisor or practitioner could pick a card at random (or draw it out of a hat) and begin a conversation.

• In ongoing supervision, the sets of cards could simply be present as a reminder of potential topics.

• In group or team supervision, each person could be given a selection of cards from a particular suit and invited to ask questions from them, when appropriate.

The topics and questions could themselves become an interesting starting point for dialogue and reflection on the supervision process:

• Are the topics and questions useful for us?

• How can we adapt them to make them fit our circumstances?

• What is missing from the deck?

• In what ways do the cards help or hinder our supervision?

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In situations where the supervision process seems to have become ‘stuck’ (for example, over the content of a specific issue) or if the energy in the relationship seems to be waning, the different suits, topics or questions might suggest ways of widening the lens or sharpening the focus elsewhere.

Here are some relevant questions that supervisors may choose to ask:

- Which of these cards do you think would be most useful to us at this stage of our conversation?

- Is there a particular card that addresses an issue you have been grappling with?

- Which of these cards and/or questions are going to build on your strengths right now?

Alternatively, to add a touch of novelty, perhaps a random choice activity could be introduced by choosing one or more of the suits and ‘blindly’ choosing a card from that suit or the whole set. Sometimes random choice presents elements of surprising synchronicity.

- What message might this card have for us?

- Randomly choose 2 more cards. Do you see any connection between these cards?

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Between Supervision SessionsThe Vision cards are a conversational tool but as such they should not get in the way or become a distraction within supervision. The cards distil rich sources of practice wisdom and can provide the skeleton upon which the flesh and blood of practitioner expertise can be enhanced. This can take time and the nature of the questions within the card set is such that ample reflective time deserves to be allocated.

For this reason the authors believe that the cards may be as useful between sessions as within sessions.

Reflecting on the questions between sessions can help build the conversational agenda for the next or subsequent supervision sessions. The supervisor or the practitioner may discover a question that nails a particular insight or concern.

If a reflective journal is kept by either party the cards can provide a prompt for writing up these thoughts and feelings as an ongoing record of each person’s reflections and professional growth.

For a daily reflective prompt the cards can be displayed on a worker’s desk and rotated sequentially so that there is a topic and ‘questions of the day’ to consider and possibly journal about.

• These cards have been designed to help ensure that supervision is a rich experience for both of us. Would you like to take the set home with you and each time we meet, bring one card that you think we could usefully spend time discussing?

• I imagine that between now and next time you will be thinking about our supervision today. Is there a card you would like to reflect on in the days to come?

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• Do you keep notes or a journal about your practice? Whether you do or not, in the time before we meet again, would you be prepared to write a short reflective piece about your learning? Perhaps you might consider using one or more of the cards as a prompt?

• Would you consider selecting a different card each day to focus your thoughts?

• Are you comfortable bringing these reflections to our supervision sessions?

Peer and Group SupervisionOutside of traditional individual supervision the cards can provide a lively way for generating conversation with colleagues in group supervision formats.

Participants can be invited to choose a topic or questions that interest them for whatever reason, and then to share this with the group. They may want to ask the group for input to the questions named on the cards.

Participants can be invited to choose one or more cards at random and asked to explore the relevance of the topics and questions to them personally, the relevance to the group and the connection, if any, between the cards that were selected.

Introducing an activity where each participant in a peer or group supervision has one or more cards, and then inviting each person to offer comments or thoughts about their card is one way of ensuring that everyone in the group is given the space to contribute. This kind of activity also recognises the wide variety of considerations or views that might be offered on any given topic.

If the group communicates via email or social media questions from the cards can be attached simply as ‘the question of the week’ or used as the prompt for an exchange of viewpoints.

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• For our group supervision session today, I suggest we try a random choice exercise using the Vision cards. Simply take one card from the deck without reading it. (Or you can ask someone to randomly deal cards to people). What is its key message for you?

• Could each person who has chosen a card pleaser read out the topic. Without knowing the questions on the back of the card, what questions would you ask to explore that theme?

• As we plan to establish the culture of this supervision group, which of the cards identify key components of the culture you would want us to exemplify?

• What if we rotate the leadership of the group? Perhaps if the designated leader brings a case story or challenge from their practice, they could also bring a card they would like the group to discuss?

• Perhaps our supervision group could set up a blog or email exchange based each week around one card. Everyone can take the opportunity to comment on the relevance of the questions.

What Else?The authors of A Vision for Supervision agree that one of the key, never-to-be-forgotten questions from the solution-focused tradition is: ‘What else?’

The Vision card set is far from comprehensive. There will always be other questions. We hope that the topics and questions we have included invite inquiry. We hope they generate more questions than answers! Our benchmark for the success of the cards is the curiosity they inspire.

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Whether the cards are experienced as directly useful or not, we hope that users of the cards will always consider the ‘What else?’ question.

What are the topics and questions that you would include in a card set that you designed to aid your supervision? What else might exist that we haven’t thought of? What’s stopping you from producing your own conversation-building materials for supervision settings?

• The Vision cards name 40 topics and 160 questions relevant to supervision. What other topics and questions would you want to include in your own card set?

• Can you identify your top 10 questions from the whole set? Why not create a poster to place near your desk?

• What question has a child asked you that you found intriguing?

• If a spider on the wall could ask a question relevant to this supervision session, what would it be?

• What would a person you admire say about a challenge you brought to supervision today?

• What is the best, worst and funniest thing that has happened to you with a client?

• WHAT ELSE?

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About the AuthorsRoger LoweRoger is a private consultant based in Brisbane and specialising in strengths-based approaches. In a previous life (which lasted 26 years), he taught at Queensland University of Technology, contributing to masters programs in counselling and clinical psychology.

Roger continues to offer private supervision and workshop facilitation, and maintains his involvement with several universities, where he teaches supervision and provides live clinical supervision (often using a reflecting team process). His book, Family Therapy: A Constructive Framework, was published in 2004 by Sage. He is also the author of several chapters and articles on supervision.

Roger is a registered psychologist, whose professional memberships include the Australian Psychological Society, the Australasian Association for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, and the Australian Association of Family Therapy.

Having left full-time work, he enjoys having more time to travel, to read, and to devote himself to projects like A Vision for Supervision that genuinely excite him. He hopes that these cards will prove to be an innovative resource that can enhance the collaborative and creative potential of strengths-based work.

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Russell DealRussell is the founder and creative director of St Luke’s Innovative Resources, and a director of St Luke’s Anglicare. He has an academic background in social work, psychology and education. Initially, he worked as a social worker in the Prisons Division of Victoria’s Social Welfare Department (as it was called at the time) before becoming a social work educator and then joining St Luke’s Anglicare in 1984.

In the early 1990s Russell became interested in use of hands-on tools for building conversations with St Luke’s clients. This led to the creation of Strength Cards – a set of 48 illustrated cards that named possible strengths people might identify as resources for facing challenges in their lives.

In 1994 he was awarded the Anita Morawetz Scholarship through the University of Melbourne for innovation in family therapy research. Russell used this scholarship to research how practitioners used Strength Cards and other ‘therapeutic artefacts’ to build conversations. Since that time he has created or published over 50 ‘seriously optimistic, conversation-building tools’ through Innovative Resources, and delivered hundreds of highly interactive workshops demonstrating their use.

In 2013 he was the recipient of an Order of Australia Medal for services to social work education and the community.

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Innovative ResourcesAbout the Publisher

Innovative Resources is the publishing arm of St Luke’s Anglicare, based in Bendigo, Australia. St Luke’s runs over seventy programs for children, families, young people and adults struggling with issues of mental health, disability and gambling, among other concerns. St Luke’s has some 370 staff and over 15 work sites throughout North Central Victoria and into New South Wales and Southern Australia.

St Luke’s has developed a strengths-based practice philosophy that underpins all its programs and reinforces its commitment to working towards a fairer and more just society. Innovative Resources has endeavoured to bring alive this philosophy by creating and publishing original, ‘seriously optimistic’, hands-on tools. Innovative Resources also runs a bookshop and offers training on creative ways to use its materials for building strengths-based conversations and organisational cultures.

Innovative Resources is a unique, not-for-profit social enterprise that has operated for over 20 years without government or philanthropic assistance, with the aim of making a financial contribution to support St Luke’s programs and services.

St Luke’s and Innovative Resources feel privileged to be able to work in partnership with many individuals and organisations throughout Australia and around the world.

To learn more about St Luke’s: www.stlukes.org.au

To learn more about Innovative Resources: www.innovativeresources.org

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ReferencesDavys, A & Beddoe, L 2010, Best practice in professional supervision: a guide for the helping professions, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London.

Edwards, JK 2013, Strengths-based supervision in clinical practice, Sage, London.

Friedman, S 1997, Time-effective psychotherapy: maximising outcomes in an era of minimised returns, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.

Lowe, R 2000, ‘Supervising self-supervision: constructive inquiry and embedded narratives in case consultation’, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 26 (4), pp. 511 521.

Lowe, R & Guy, G 2002, ‘Solution-oriented inquiry for ongoing supervision: expanding the horizon of change’, in M McMahon & W Patton (eds), Supervision in the helping professions: a practical approach, pp. 67-77, Pearson Australia, New South Wales.

O’Hanlon, B & Wilk, J 1987, Shifting contexts: the generation of effective psychotherapy, Guilford Press, New York.

Pond, C 1997, ‘Highlighting success in groups: Empowering and energising supervisees’, in CL Storm and TCF Todd (eds), The reasonably complete systemic supervisor resource guide, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.

Thomas, FN 2013, Solution-focused supervision: a resource-oriented approach to developing clinical expertise, Springer, New York.

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Supervision plays a pivotal role in the professional development of social workers, psychologists, counsellors, managers, health practitioners, life coaches and other human service professionals. At its best, supervision can be a powerful crucible of discovery and learning for both supervisor and practitioner—with the benefits also flowing to clients.

A VISION FOR SUPERVISION CONSISTS OF:• 40 cards arranged in 5 colour-coded suits• each card with a key topic such as ‘Hopes and plans’, ‘Present situation’, ‘What worked?’ and ‘Noticing success’• each card with 4 questions that go to the core of supervision conversations • a total of 160 strengths-based questions for building your supervision conversations from start to finish, plus…• a booklet filled with suggestions for using the cards.

www.innovativeresources.org