Terms Supervision | The Menopause Therapist

This agreement outlines how we will work together and our roles and responsibilities in our supervision relationship. I work collaboratively with my supervisees. I aim to establish a strong, collaborative relationship together from our early sessions so you can feel able to bring your whole self to our supervision sessions and feel comfortable sharing your casework, issues, and setting the agenda for the work we do together.

You, your thoughts, feelings, needs and experiences are the focus of our sessions. I will listen, support and encourage you to explore these and any problems you are experiencing without judgement, to to help you gain the best possible outcome from supervision for your clients and yourself.

I am based and work in the UK and this contractual agreement is under English and Welsh law. I am an Accredited member of the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, register number 388306) and I adhere to their Code of Ethics and Practice. The BACP Ethical Framework is available on the BACP’s website (bacp.co.uk). I am fully insured through Holistic Insurance.

The best way to contact me is by email to: helen@themenopausetherapist.com.

Our roles and responsibilities:

Supervisor responsibilities:

As your Supervisor, I will:

Be available at the agreed time.
Offer an appropriate confidential, professional, safe (online or telephone) space for our supervision sessions.
Maintain safe, professional boundaries.
Provide fair, constructive and honest feedback, evaluation and reports, if required.
Encourage you (the supervisee) to develop autonomous decision-making.
Allow space for structured reflection on your practice.
Encourage the development of skills, knowledge, awareness and ethical judgement, within a supportive relationship.
Work within the ethical framework that you practice under.
Review our supervision relationship and work on a regular basis.
Encourage your feedback on the work we do in supervision and our supervisory relationship to ensure it is meeting your needs.
Offer an alternative supervision session time ASAP in the unlikely event of needing to cancel a supervision session.

Supervisee responsibilities:

As the Supervisee, you will:

Attend at the agreed time.
Prepare for the supervision session.
Monitor, evaluate and regularly reflect on your work.
Create ethically and culturally aware professional environments for your client work and deliver the best possible service to your client group and any stakeholders involved in your client work e.g. placement providers, training organisations, employees, client families.
Aim to use supervision time effectively e.g. work to time boundaries and present your work openly and honestly.
Be responsible for your own learning and apply learning from supervision to your work.
Inform me (your supervisor) of all new clients, changes to client sessions and endings to enable accurate supervisor records.
Provide fair, constructive and honest feedback on the supervision sessions and our supervisory relationship.
Give a minimum of 48 hours’ notice when cancelling/changing an appointment. If you are unable to do this you understand the full supervision fee will be payable.
To pay session fees in full at the point of booking. Fees applicable to your regular and ad-hoc supervision sessions are shown on the Calendly supervision session booking page. Please note I review my fees on a regular basis and fees for existing supervisees may be subject to change.
To contact me by email if discussion is needed between sessions. If required we can arrange a telephone call (c.10 mins). If the discussion needs to be longer than 10 minutes then an ad-hoc supervision session must be arranged ASAP and the associated fee will become payable.
To consent to me, as your supervisor, contacting your ethical body, learning institution or place of practice if I have serious concerns about unethical practice, fitness to practice or that you are at risk of harm.
To inform me if you are considering entering another supervisory relationship.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality means that specific details about you or anything we discuss in supervision will not be shared with others. However, there are important limits to confidentiality in the UK:

Harm to self and others - if you disclose any situation that indicates you, your client, a child or vulnerable adult, or someone else is at risk of harm it may be necessary to seek help outside our supervisory relationship via your emergency contact, the emergency services or another relevant agency. I would aim to support you to take action yourself first, if this is suitable or practical under the specific circumstances.
Legal responsibilities - there are certain situations where for legal reasons I (the supervisor) may need to break confidentiality. These include if I am required to break confidentiality because of a request from an ethical body, placement, practice or learning institution (where you are a member/work/study), if you disclose involvement or information about an act of terrorism, serious crime, drug trafficking or money laundering, or if I am required by the police or a court order to give factual evidence or information about you, which would usually be with your written consent. I would aim to support you to take action yourself first, if this is suitable or practical under the specific circumstances.
I monitor my own supervisory practice by attending regular supervision for myself and I am committed to my own self-development. Aspects of our supervision sessions will be taken to my own supervision to monitor and improve my practice.
I keep brief notes relating to our sessions in line with the BACP’s recommended guidelines. These are held securely in a password-protected system, in line with GDPR. Please see my Privacy Policy for further details.

The world outside our sessions

The counselling and psychotherapy world is small. If we happen to see each other anywhere outside our sessions, to protect your confidentiality as your supervisor I would not disclose or acknowledge our supervisory relationship unless you disclose or acknowledge it first, I would take your lead on any communication.
In this interconnected world you may come across me on social media or in groups/forums/tagged etc. and I may respond to public communication on these platforms. I will not acknowledge our supervisory relationship to maintain your confidentiality.
I have public therapy accounts on social media which you are welcome to follow. I am unable to accept social media friend requests, as this can compromise our supervisory relationship.

Supervision

As a member of the BACP I am required to undertake regular supervision where I discuss aspects of my casework with my experienced Supervisor and/or in peer supervision with other supervisors, to help me best support my supervisees.

Any details of our supervision sessions that are discussed at supervision will contain no identifying details other than your first name, to protect your confidentiality.
By accepting the terms of this agreement you consent for the contents of our sessions to be discussed in supervision.
For information about how I manage your data in accordance with GDPR, please view my Privacy Policy

Our sessions

To gain the most from supervision it is essential that you commit to attending each booked session and prioritise this time for yourself, your clients, to meet the requirements of a membership body’s ethical framework and for your own wellbeing.

Our sessions are usually arranged for 90 minutes or 2 hours and can be fortnightly, monthly, ad-hoc, or at another frequency as agreed.
Sessions are online using video technology or via telephone. If online, please keep your video turned on during our sessions. Please let me know if you would prefer our sessions to be 'camera off'. I suggest you use headphones to aid confidentiality. In the exceptional circumstance that either of our internet connections are disrupted, we may move to telephone counselling for the remainder of the session.
Sessions must not be recorded through any means without my express written permission in advance. In the unlikely event that I require sessions to be recorded digitally for my own supervision or training purposes I will request your permission in advance. You can say no. Session recording would only be with your agreement at the time of each recording and you have the right to change your mind at any time. Recordings will be deleted permanently after the relevant supervision or training ends.
Please discuss holidays or planned breaks in supervision with me as far in advance as possible. My practice usually closes for a week at Easter, two weeks at Christmas and between one and four weeks in August each year (and I may take other breaks throughout the year).
Please arrive on time - if for any reason you are late for a supervision session it is unlikely I would be able to extend your session time. If you are running late I would be grateful if you could email me to let me know as soon as possible.
Non-attended sessions or late cancellations (less than 48 hours’ notice before session start time) will count as a session and my full session fee will be charged. If a message advising of a late cancellation is received after the start time of our session, it will be regarded as a non-attendance.
In the event of an unplanned non-attendance I remain online in our booked session for 15 minutes and will attempt to contact you to remind you of the session approximately 10 minutes after our session start time. If you are ready and able to join the remainder of the session after the 1st 15 minutes have lapsed and I have closed our online session, please contact me by email to request a session restart so we can make the most of the remaining time we have available.
In the unlikely circumstance that you miss 2 or more planned supervision sessions without prior agreement it will usually end this supervision agreement and your session time may be offered to another supervisee.
Please don't attend your session while under the influence of non-prescribed drugs or alcohol.
If for any reason you feel that our supervision sessions do not meet your needs, or you feel ready to finish our work together, you are free to end this agreement. I hope you would feel able to discuss this with me in advance so we can plan a safe and suitable ending for you. In the unlikely event that our discussion is not satisfactory and you feel you would like to make a formal complaint, you can find details of how to do this on the BACP website.
By accepting this agreement you are confirming you have read and understood this agreement, and you give your consent to supervision being provided and the terms as outlined.