The benefits of Group Supervision

We all know that 1-1 supervision allows you and I to discuss specific elements of your counselling practice in-depth. Group supervision is often more “generic”.

Interestingly, though, a paper by Valentino et al. (2016) discussed the benefits of group supervision, and many were highlighted:

1. Peer feedback: getting feedback from many allows the “community” to assist, rather than just one supervisor; this adds to the richness of feedback.
2. Social networking: meeting up to 9 colleagues in one of my group supervision sessions allows you to expand your network nationally.
3. Multiple listeners: one piece of advice might help more than just the person who prompted the discussion. You might JUST need that bit of info someone else was asking about!
4. Observational learning: we learn by listening to each other, and finding ways to do (or NOT!) things slightly differently.
5. Modelling and rehearsing positive and productive discussions: this group may be one of the few positive and productive discussions you have this week – depending on where you work. You may as well bathe in that.
6. Generalising individual skills: group supervision gives everyone a chance to generalise their own skillset, and make it available to others.
7. Public presentation opportunities: if you bring an interesting case to group supervision, everyone can learn, and you will strengthen your facilitation skills.

These are just 7 major benefits pointed out in the article. It’s useful to engage in both individual and group supervision. That much is clear.

Valentino, A. L., LeBlanc, L. A., Sellers, T. P. (2016). The benefits of group supervision and a recommended structure for implementation. Behavioural Analysis Practice 9(4), 320-328. doi: 10.1007/s40617-016-0138-8