Aileen Ross

As a Senior Accredited Supervisor, I'm professionally trained and qualified at Masters degree level, and have worked for 15 years with both individual counsellors/helpers and groups of therapists from many different therapy models and settings - such as hospitals, schools, GP surgeries, student counselling services, NHS, hospices, charities, voluntary sector, emergency services etc. The supervisory framework I work within is the very adaptable  'Hawkins-Shohet Model'.   This is an 'integrative-relational' model of supervision and enables me to work individually   or in groups with people from many different helping professions including therapy.  With a Postgraduate Diploma in Supervision at Masters level from Salford University (2005),  I provide a professionally supportive, mentorial and appropriately challenging environment for supervisees to get the most out of the sessions for themselves and their clients.  I've had extensive experience working with supervisees across varying levels of experience - from trainees to people with 30 years experience. In my supervisory practice I work with up to a maximum of 20 supervisees, who between them have incredible wealth of experience and variety of helping backgrounds.  I've also provided group supervision for many different organisations.  Supervisees come from private practice, from training courses, public and private organisations, voluntary organisations, the NHS, charities, hospices, sexual abuse support services, domestic violence units, young people's counselling agencies, addiction organisations, and mental health units amongst many others. MY THERAPEUTIC BACKGROUNDI am an integrative humanistic therapist which means I have been trained to draw on a number of counselling theories and practice which I use to work uniquely with each person.  I've worked with counselling clients since the late-1990s with hundreds of individual clients and couples through the NHS, GP surgeries, private & public organisations, work-based settings, student counselling services, and in private practice.  During that time I've accumulated more than 15,000 counselling hours with individual clients and couples. This demonstrates my commitment and consistency over many years in working therapeutically with clients to help them understand their issues, help explore what they can do to resolve them, and to move forward with long-lasting changes in their lives. An experienced, professionally qualified Psychotherapist and Counsellor, I've been a Senior Accredited and Registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) over 2 decades, working within their ethical code of conduct.You will also find me on the nationally approved register for accredited and registered UK independent psychotherapists and counsellors validated each year by the Professional Standards Authority.I carry professional and public indemnity insurance to a higher level recommended by my professional association, the BACP.I also hold current Home Office Disclosure and Barring Service's Criminal Records Enhanced Disclosure (DBS) - for reassurance when working with vulnerable adults, adolescents or children.  Within my integrative therapeutic approach I have a person-centred attitude to each person or couple I work with.    I also integratively and creatively draw on these other models:    Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and Stress Reduction (MBCT / MBSR), Gestalt, Transactional Analysis (TA), and Psychodynamic therapeutic skills.Clients tell me they find I have an empathic understanding of where they are in their lives and intuitively know how to facilitate their healing, change and growth.MY SUPERVISORY EXPERIENCEOver the past 15 years. alongside client work, I have additionally spent a further 4,000 hours working with supervisees from a variety of different settings in both the public, private and voluntary sectors, across varying levels of experience from trainees to very experienced supervisees from therapy and other helping professions.   I have also facilitated group supervision in a number of different settings - addiction, domestic violence, and health organisations. Alongside this, I have also lectured and tutored on counselling courses for several years, so understand the developmental needs of trainee counsellors alongside the educational rigour of their courses. I have taught trainee counsellors across the broad spectrum of different therapeutic approaches, and all other factors in counselling training, including Personal Development work, skills work, and placement mentoring. I integrate this educative and mentorial background within my supervisory work.WHAT I OFFER YOU IN SUPERVISION  . . . I always suggest a free initial chat and meeting for every prospective supervisee, whatever their experience, to see if we feel we would be comfortable working together. I thoroughly enjoy the 'meeting' of therapeutic minds in the supervisory process when we embark on working together and I provide an appropriately supportive, mentorial and challenging environment for therapists to develop their skills and knowledge and widen their experience. I work within my core 'Hawkins-Shohet' supervisory model (which is also described as an 'integrative relational framework' - meaning it explores overlapping relationships brought to the supervision room such as counsellor/client, supervisor/counsellor, and supervisor/client).  From this solid and emotionally grounded framework, I offer safe and supportive space for supervisees to be able to stand back and reflect on their therapeutic processes with clients.   This gives opportunity to engage in the search for new options with clients; and the discovery  new learning emerges from even the most difficult situations in therapeutic relationships. My fundamental approach is to offer supervision as a place to receive support and mentoring alongside challenge appropriate to the experience of the supervisee and/or the complexity or intensity of the therapeutic work. I bring with me the curiosity and ability to provide a safe space to also explore the sometimes complex overlapping relationships in the counselling and supervisory relationships.   Supervision, like therapy, sometimes involves humour and laughter (where appropriate) just as it does the other human emotions our clients bring to sessions, like fear, anxiety, irritation, anger and distress.  Supervision in parallel to therapy can often mirror all these emotions in the supervision room, and if given sufficient safe space to explore and develop awareness of this mirroring can help both supervisee and their clients improve their own therapeutic journey together. The same can apply to group supervision.If you would like to arrange an initial meeting to explore whether we feel comfortable working together in supervision please do contact me by:Mobile phone:       07961 327828  (confidential voicemail if I'm unavailable to answer)                Or please do email me if you prefer that initial way of making contact with me at:  aileenross@btinternet.comI look forward to hearing from you . . .        Warm wishes,  Aileen