How to choose

How to choose the right supervision for you?

Supervision is available in different forms: individual and group supervision.  Group supervision is subdivided based on the type of supervision: team supervision, case supervision, organization supervision, etc.

The choice of supervision is mostly determined by several individual factors (some issues to consider: What type of supervision do I need?  Which type of supervision would I feel comfortable and safe with?  How many supervision sessions am I /is my organization able to pay for? Etc.) Also organization factors shall be considered (e.g.: What type of supervision do we need?  What are our topicalities and needs?  Will group supervision be better than an individual one?  How much money does our organization has for supervision?  Would it be better to divide the resources for both individual and group supervisions?).

Many professionals combine several types of supervision and participate in both group and individual supervision sessions. In this way they get both more support and deeper insight in their individual professional issues as well as benefit from their experience of diverse and unifying group or team supervision.

Individual supervision is an effective development process for employees of the organization, no matter what position they hold or what their duties are. The aim of this type of supervision is to improve the competences required for the post, to encourage their self-awareness as well as perfection of behaviour and attitudes promoting cooperation with other people and fulfilling their assignment/reaching their goals.

Team supervision is suitable for management teams, department and inter-department teams as well as project teams to improve the work efficiency, learn how to communicate in a better way, change ineffective behaviour, and reach an agreement on a common understanding, goals and procedures.

Group supervision is a great supporting process for  specialists from  similar  branch  to deal with  issues related to work and important for all group’s participants. The main goal is to learn from each other's experience and to improve both individual and collective professional competencies of the specialists in the branch.

Organization supervision is suitable for organizations, in which the top-level management team or owners are willing to identify the obstacles and improve the performance of the organization as a system.

How to choose the right supervisor for you?

It is a very difficult task to recommend a supervisor for other people, taking into account that each supervisee has different needs and each supervisor has a different offer.  However, we can give you some tips you may take into account when choosing a supervisor.    First of all you have to choose a supervisor who has completed education in supervision. The website of the Latvian Association of Supervisors contains a list of business cards of the supervisors who have completed education in supervision.

Furthermore, we believe that specialists, who are starting their work in helping professions (at least for the first 2 years) should choose a supervisor with similar professional background (e.g., a social worker chooses a supervisor who has education and experience in social work; a psychologist chooses a supervisor who has education and experience in psychology etc.).

In case of team or organization supervision it is possible to choose supervisors with different professional backgrounds.

Before starting a supervision you have a possibility to meet and get acquainted with the supervisor to decide, whether you will be able to cooperate.

Sometimes the choice of a supervisor is exaggerated and people are looking for some kind of guru or a magician.  Supervisor is a specialist of in carrying out the supervision process and applying the appropriate methods for the issue. Decisions will be made by you!