Building Understanding

One of the current situations I am involved in concerns a counselor supervisor and one of her staff (also a counselor) whom she is responsible to manage and provide clinical supervision.

I have had numerous conversations with the supervisor as the issues around the counselor's work have been on-going over at least 2-years. Some of this has involved venting, but also the supervisor has concerns around the quality of the counselor’s work, the impact on children under her care and other colleagues both within and outside the organization.

I have had one meeting with the counselor where she described a couple of situations where she felt that the supervisor’s management and understanding of her situation was lacking. Although the two staff have met together on a few occasions, we had a joint meeting – them and myself, to share understanding around some of the core issues – trust, respect and communications. At this point I have asked them both to do some personal reflection around this and their expectations for themselves. We plan to come together soon and share reflections and see if we can reach some common areas of understanding and how this might look in terms of work-practice.

-Female MAC Participant

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