Josephine Burke

I have been incredibly lucky in having inspiring supervisors throughout my training and career who have managed a balance of holding hope through their reassurance of my strengths and managing risk through providing vision and learning where I have blind spots or lack of knowledge. This is what I hope to do for my therapists as a supervisor also.  I have learned the importance of structure, relationship, image, and context of the client as well as the culture within the organisation where the client is seen and the impact of this. I hope to highlight these for my supervisees.  I am passionate about all learning and believe this to be a key component of supervision: discovering new policies, innovative practice, latest research and cutting edge art and culture to enhance multiple view points and develop an understanding which ultimately contributes to a high quality of care for clients’.   I believe the relationship as the most important aspect to therapy and believe in inclusion and creating an accessible therapy for clients. I draw on a humanistic model for this. I use systemic theory to understand the context around the client.  In terms of art psychotherapy I draw upon different theoretical understanding: psychodynamic to see how the client relates to the art object to reflect on their inner world; mindfulness to use art making as a way of drawing attention to the present moment; mentalisation to enhance clients’ skills to understand and pay attention to their own feelings by thinking about how their feelings change when making and looking at the image.  I also use mentalisation to use joint attention which is a key part of supervision for me. 

Testimonials

"I found my supervision with Josephine extremely holding and supportive throughout a challenging placement. I felt she supported me well in exploring, in depth, the client material coming up, it was especially helpful exploring transference and countertransference. I felt Josephine supported me well in applying concepts and theory to the clinical work which really helped my understanding develop of the theories and concepts. I felt safe to be completely honest in what was happening for me and what of my material could impact the client work, so I was able to develop an awareness around that and practice safely. I felt really well supported around creating documentation that worked with my neurodivergence i.e. process and clinical notes, consent form, referral form, writing therapeutic letter at the end etc. Josephine offered clear and thorough feedback that acted as scaffolding, helping me understand how to construct these documents so I could continue to develop my own style without needing much further support. Throughout my experience of supervision with Josephine, I felt empowered in my role as a trainee art therapist on a placement where I didn't have much other support, my confidence increased massively, I developed an awareness and skills around clinical governance. I felt I learnt a lot from Josephine's skills and experience around working with families and early years which in turn really supported my client work. I would 100% recommend you to others, I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to work with you." S (art therapist trainee wirking with under 5s and parents)

"I find Josephine Burke to be a non-judgmental, caring and supportive supervisor. I have zoom sessions with her and we connect up really well even though we are online. The meetings are interesting and very helpful in giving me the way forward with my clients. I would recommend Josephine" H (art therapist working with adults)

"Josephine and I meet online and the virtual space feels safe and holding and Josephine has a very calm and nurturing presence. I have always felt at ease in supervision and never judged about the 'not knowing' or challenges I need to bring. I have felt able to discuss more than just supervision as this year has been challenging within this particular role. Institutional dynamics have filtered in.

I feel at ease and relieved after our sessions. I never come away feeling I was not heard ir stuck on moving forward with dilemmas I may be faced with. Josephine will send me courses or documents and anything that will be helpful for me within practice that touches upon our sessions. I feel like I am kept in mind and supported really well." (C, Art therapist working with children and young people in schools and local authority)