Jed Bridge

Please note: this page relates to my clinical supervision practice; if it is my counselling and psychotherapy practice you are looking for, please follow the link to my main profile at the end.

Hello and welcome; I'm Jed. I am a qualified supervisor with 20+ years' experience, currently offering clinical supervision on an independent basis to both qualified and trainee practitioners.

PLEASE NOTE: AT THE PRESENT TIME, I AM NOT TAKING ON ANY NEW SUPERVISION REFERRALS FROM STUDENT COUNSELLORS IN TRAINING.

I WILL UPDATE THE INFORMATION HERE WHEN THIS SITUATION CHANGES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.

I AM STILL TAKING ENQUIRIES FOR ONLINE SUPERVISION (VIA ZOOM) FROM QUALIFIED PRACTITIONERS. 

Supervisory approach:

I see the supervision relationship as a collaborative professional working alliance, where the supervisor supports the practice and development of the practitioner.

This means that I seek to facilitate practitioners not only to evaluate and reflect meaningfully on all areas of their professional practice, but also to sustain themselves in their work, and to develop their understanding in relation to their own motivations and philosophical orientation, in order to help them realise their potential in their individual approach.

This sits within an overall working context of accountability and commitment to sound ethical standards, and includes facilitating practitioners' capacity to work confidently, creatively and competently in the best interests of their clients and/or service users.

I draw on a supervisory framework that integrates various supervision models and sits comfortably within my own theoretical and philosophical approach. These supervision models are principally:

• the ‘seven-eyed' or process model (Hawkins & Shohet);
• the integrative developmental model (Stoltenberg & Delworth);
• the ‘tasks of supervision’ model (Inskipp & Proctor);
• person-centred supervision models (Tudor & Worrall, et al).

I incorporate an embodied approach to supervision that focuses on self-reflection and the exploration of processes within the work, as well as on developing practitioner awareness and congruence, in order to facilitate and enable the counsellor to work effectively at relational and psychological depth.

I am a Registered Member of BACP (Registered Member MBACP) - reg. no. 109981, and I work within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.

Theoretical approach and orientation:

As a supervisor, I work with counsellors in both integrative and person-centred approaches. reflecting my own integrative therapeutic orientation, which is rooted in core humanistic values and theoretical concepts.

These values resonate with my own values and have guided and motivated me since the early days of my initial counsellor training in the person-centred approach. On reflection, and with experience and hindsight, I am able to recognise how integrative my nominally person-centred training actually was, whilst maintaining its essential person-centredness.

As a therapist, and thus informing my orientation in my practice as a supervisor, my integrative approach means that I bring together aspects from different counselling/psychotherapy models, which I tailor in collaboration with my clients to meet their own individual circumstances and requirements, within a consistent underlying client-centred philosophy.

I see this as a philosophy that embraces a fundamental belief in the client’s intrinsic capacity to be autonomous and self-determining, and I work within these tenets to promote individual empowerment, recognising the key importance of the client-counsellor relationship and the presence of the 'core conditions' in facilitating effective therapeutic change.

When holding those tenets at heart, it isn't difficult for me to be integrative in my approach; my underlying humanistic philosophy is integral and acts like a core framework or essential guiding principle in my work. The actual form that my engagement in the therapeutic relationship takes at any particular time can be creative, intuitive, organic and holistic, tailored to the client's uniqueness and individual needs, and grounded in this guiding principle. I retain my values and underlying theoretical orientation, remaining connected to what I'm about as a counsellor and to my understanding of the nature of therapeutic change.

This is maintained and supported through ongoing reflective practice, along with commitment to my own supervision and engagement in personal and professional development.

Trusting the process:

One of my key strengths as a supervisor is in facilitating the counsellors I work with to develop their awareness and their ability to work at the edge of it.

This involves them recognising their own internal responses, as well as their clients' internal processes, and the dynamics between themselves and the client. I encourage counsellors to listen within and acquaint themselves with their intuition and their wisdom. I think this is particularly important for counsellors working in humanistic and relational approaches.

From the early days of my counselling training, I have heard and used the term, "trust the process", often when I or colleagues have been encountering stuckness with our clients, or have felt a little overwhelmed or out of our depth! I can say with confidence at this stage in my career that I understand what trusting the process is, and appreciate its relevance; furthermore, I can articulate this in the context of my approach.

Embracing the process of therapeutic change, and trusting in this, is at the heart of my philosophy, both as a counsellor and as a supervisor.

Influences on my practice:

My influences include theoretical principles and methodology from humanistic psychology, person-centred therapy, gestalt and transactional analysis, and many psychodynamic concepts inherent within some of these approaches (e.g. introjection, projection, transference/counter-transference, dissociation, and other psychological processes).

I am also developing my interest in neuroscience and physiological functioning, and I have been influenced by insights and learning from these areas (e.g. brain hemisphere functions, and the workings of the autonomic nervous system, particularly the 'fight-flight-freeze' response). These have helped inform my practice, for instance, in relation to impasse work, or to understanding and working more effectively with clients' experiences of stress, anxiety and trauma.

In addition, my practice is complemented by elements from existential and cognitive behavioural approaches, relating to the role of our perceptions and beliefs, and the interaction of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

I am referring, in particular, to identifying how our inner world and the impact of our underlying or core beliefs affect our outlook and how we respond and behave externally. I think it can be very helpful and empowering in therapy to recognise how these internal responses relate to our view of ourselves, others and the world, and to gain insight into how they influence our expectations and our emotional and behavioural reactions.

An integrative approach:

For me, all this blends well within an underlying humanistic orientation, integrating with a philosophy where counselling might be viewed as being essentially concerned with improving and developing our relationship and connection with ourselves. Within such a stance, difficulties in relation to managing the situations in our lives might be seen largely in the context of a manifestation, or playing-out, of the dynamics of our inner world, with its internalised constructs and conditions that are often quite rigid and mainly out of conscious awareness, and which can result in various psychological tensions, causing emotional disturbance, anxiety and distress.

I see a functional role within my overall integrative approach for the effective use of appropriate cognitive interventions (examples might include: cognitive restructuring and reframing; confronting cognitive distortions, e.g. black and white thinking; the application of Ellis's 'ABC' model; or, referring to relevant structures and models from Transactional Analysis), as well as the integration of problem-management and solution-focused models (e.g. Egan's 'Skilled Helper' model; Prochaska & DiClemente's 'Transtheoretical'  a.k.a. 'Stages of Change' model; Tonkin's 'Growing Around Grief' model).

I have found that incorporating varying degrees of psychoeducation can be extremely supportive, in terms of resourcing clients by raising their awareness and potentially enabling and empowering themselves; or, perhaps put more accurately, facilitating their agency over what is currently disempowering them, as well as possibly helping to de-mystify and de-pathologize the therapy itself. In practice, this might well involve working with analogies and metaphor, as well as open discussion, in order to reflect, check out, explain or explore relevant processes and theoretical concepts, and always within the context of a collaborative exchange with the client.

In my view, such interventions complement and integrate well into a humanistic model, provided they are used in a competent, intuitive and appropriately-focused, collaborative way that 'adds value' and does not undermine clients' autonomy. For me, these are key considerations in terms of effective integration, alongside clients' individual needs and circumstances.

In that light, I find it helpful to view such interventions as 'directional' rather than 'directive'.

Growth:

My supervision practice continues to grow and evolve, nudged along by ongoing reflection and by insights gained from experiences and learning across my life (both personal and professional). These include:

• my experience of working as a supervisor, including the insights, experiences and challenges shared by my supervisees;
• my experience of working therapeutically with clients, and the experiences they share; my learning from reflection on my experience as a supervisee in my own supervision, and as a client in my own personal therapy;
• my learning from networking with various colleagues, peers and 'kindred spirits', and from continuing professional development;
• my learning from my own insights and life experiences.

See my main counsellor profile for more details of my current professional practice.

My fees:

Standard rate for qualified counsellors:

• £60 per hour

Student/concession rate for trainee/volunteer counsellors:

• £50 per hour

If you are interested in working with me, I would ask that we first arrange a brief introductory phone call, after which we may choose to meet for an initial free consultation (lasting about half an hour), where we can discuss expectations and get a feel for one another, ready to decide if we might go on to work together. I am happy for you to go away to consider this before making a final decision. If we choose to work together, we would need to agree a supervision contract in our first full session.

Background and experience as a supervisor:

I qualified as a supervisor in 2000 (Diploma in Fieldwork Supervision), and as a counsellor in 1996 (Diploma in Counselling). As well as supervision provided to individuals on an independent private basis, my practice has also included the provision of both one-to-one and group supervision in various agency settings:

• Beacon Counselling, Stockport - delivering individual and group supervision services (12 years, 2009-20 & 2022-23);
• GamCare, Salford - individual supervision;
• Face-to-Face Counselling Service, Chorlton - individual and group supervision;
• Cruse Bereavement Care (Greater Manchester Branch) - individual supervision.

I have also facilitated peer supervision groups within counselling diploma courses at Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT) and Salford College, during several years' working as a part-time lecturer and personal development group facilitator on various counsellor training courses.

In my counsellor trainer and PD group facilitator capacity, I have worked for Liverpool Community College, MANCAT, Salford College and Tameside College, as well as providing training for Cruse Bereavement Care (Greater Manchester Branch), where have I co-facilitated 60-hour Introduction to Bereavement Counselling courses for new volunteer counsellors.

My own experience of being a supervisee includes participation in individual supervision, group supervision and reciprocal one-to-one peer supervision.

See my main counsellor profile for more details of my background and relevant experience, as well as further information about my current professional practice. I currently engage in regular individual supervision for all my work, in addition to ongoing peer supervision and support.

Please feel free to contact me on 07792 110812 with any questions about my supervision practice or to discuss the possibility of our working together - or email me via the Counselling Directory online enquiry form.

I aim to respond to voicemail and email enquiries within 2 working days.

Thank you for your interest.