Supervision

Even within the context of this book, the term ‘group supervision’ could suggest any one of a range of potential meanings. It could conceivably mean the practice-related meetings of a handful of human service workers who, having a common professional interest and comparable level of experience, convene regularly in an informal and non-evaluative setting for the purpose of shared supervision. Strictly though, such a group would be called a peer consultation group, given there is no direct professional supervisory responsibility involved and no explicitly-appointed leader. A second plausible, if still unlikely, interpretation of group supervision would be the individual (dyadic) supervision of group work practitioners. A third definition might describe an arrangement whereby a small group of practitioners, who work primarily with individuals, are supervised in a group format. Yet another possibility is that group work practitioners are supervised as a group with reference to a group work method. This variant requires that, as supervision takes place, there is attention to the process and dynamics of the proceedings as well as the content. This chapter will focus on this final permutation. The reason for this focus is that it generates the ‘purest’ form of the term, ‘group supervision’, and generates the most extensive possibilities for discussing the modality. Such a focus also has the advantage of being able to inform in part all of the other modalities listed above.