Sheila Mae Hamilton

I supervise counsellors and psychotherapists who work with adults and with children and young people, face to face, by phone and online. With my experience and knowledge of counselling in schools and working with students at college and university, I am well placed to supervise counsellors who work in schools and in further and higher education. 

My experience as a supervisor includes supporting student counsellors on placement and relatively inexperienced counsellors, and also with very experienced therapists who have been counselling for many years. 

My training with the Edinburgh Gestalt Institute was integrative and relational and I have worked with supervisees trained in different approaches including person centred, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychodynamic, integrative and pluralistic approaches. 

The purpose of supervision, in my understanding is to encourage and support the development of supervisees, to their best possible practice and to ensure the safety of clients. 

Although it is a requirement of counsellors and psychotherapists to attend regular clinical supervision, I strive to create a trusting relationship in which you feel held and accepted without judgement so that you can bring anything you want to supervision and that you get, to the best of my ability, what you need from our meetings.  

I work in a holistic way and encourage you to bring your whole self to supervision, including personal life events and your responses to them because they have many impacts on your client work. If I feel that it would be beneficial to you, I would not hesitate to suggest that you seek a personal therapist in addition to supervision, so as to ensure the best support for you and ultimately for your clients. 

My way of working offers:

• respect
• establishing an effective supervisory alliance and a relationship in which learning can take place
• a balance between support and compassionate challenge
• feedback, which is clear, timely and accurate
• consultation, discussion and a mutual exchange of information
• questioning of assumptions
• giving attention to the feelings and responses of the supervisee in relation to client work
• ensuring the supervisee is working in the best interest of the client and within their competencies and professional ethical standards
• evaluating effectiveness with regard to individual interventions and the overall outcomes for therapy
• the teaching of theory and learning of specific skills and interventions

I offer creative interventions including artwork and sand tray to supervisees as an additional and optional way of expressing themselves.

If you would like to know more about the way I work or to arrange an initial meeting to discuss your supervision requirements, please get in touch. 

Frequency of meetings

BACP require that counsellors and psychotherapists have a minimum of 1.5 hours per month of supervision. You may prefer to have supervision fortnightly and I am happy to facilitate this. 

Fees and cancellations

My current fee is £45 for 1 hour. If you cancel a session without giving at least 24 hours’ notice, you will usually have to pay the full fee.