My background as a supervisor

Perhaps you want to know more about my background as it relates to being a supervisor, so that you can think about how it fits (or not!) with what you are looking for. Here are some of the threads of my history ....

People management

For thirty years I was in leadership roles with people reporting to me. I quickly learned that people work best when there is the right balance of support, development and challenge, and that this balance is different for everyone. I developed a very positive reputation for my people-focused management style (it feels awkward writing that!). As a supervisor, I would not be your manager of course. But I would bring the same sense that you (and through you, your clients) are at the centre of my attention, and that your development in and experience of your work is important.

Private practice

I have been self-employed since I had my first child. I knew that my corporate employer was not likely to support me both being part-time and continuing my career trajectory, so I decided to look after my own career by setting up a business offering consultancy and interim management services to financial services companies. I became a coach during that period, and when I subsequently qualified as a counsellor it was natural for me to go into private practice. If you are in private practice, or want to be, I am well-placed to support you.

Counselling charity and clinical leadership

Leicester Counselling Centre (LCC) is a charity providing affordable long-term counselling to the 1 million population of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, with a counsellor team of about 70, half qualified and half on placement. It's a really positive place, with a wonderful ethos and a strong foundation in ethical and professional practice. I joined LCC as a qualified volunteer in 2017, and became a trained assessor for new clients in 2018. LCC needed people with leadership and organisational experience to join the charity board, so I became a voluntary trustee in 2018. I took on the role of Board Chair in 2019, a position which became unexpectedly challenging in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, and some subsequent staffing issues. In this role I have developed extensive experience of all aspects of running a counselling organisation, including policies, procedures, safeguarding & risk management, and the development of trainees. I am also line manager for the CEO and Clinical Lead, and strive to offer a safe space for reflection, exploration of challenges and professional development.

In 2021, circumstances at LCC meant I stepped into the CEO and Clinical Lead role for ten months. This role was my first experience of providing clinical support to other counsellors, and I found it very rewarding. The work varied from liaising with placement providers and funders, to supporting placement counsellors ahead of their first client session, from writing placement reports, to working through complex ethical dilemmas with experienced counsellors. I hope and believe that I am a wiser person and practitioner from all of my experience in LCC and that this will enhance your experience of supervision with me.

This intensive experience of clinical leadership led me in 2022 to supervision training, initially with a short in-person course. I then completed a Certificate in Clinical Supervision (Sue Pattison Training, 2023). I am currently completing a Diploma in Clinical Supervision.

Coaching experience

I've been a coach for over twenty-five years, and hope to be able to support you in your coaching work, if that is part of your practice. It also means that I adopt a coaching approach in all of my supervisory work - in which a major part of my role is to be your thinking partner, support and ally.

Working as a consultant in my own business, I was first asked in 1999 by a financial services company to provide individual coaching to a group of technical specialists who were transitioning into team leadership roles. At that time, coaching was not common outside of sport, and the range of courses and resources available now did not exist. I undertook the assignment using my own experience of leadership and management, learnings from my psychology of leadership course (Cranfield School of Management, 1994) and a powerful belief that the coaching would work best through a process of exploration rather than me telling the coachees what to do. That was the start of my coaching career and I subsequently completed a Diploma in NLP (2010) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Coaching (UEL, 2013).

On my PGDip we were (rightly) taught that we might encounter coaching clients whose barriers to growth seemed to arise from aspects of their personal history, or who sometimes seemed to struggle with issues like anxiety or depression, or whose personal history seemed complex. In this case we should work only with 'pure coaching issues' or refer the client on to a counsellor or psychotherapist. I realised that this caveat applies to every person and every client - powerfully motivated to be able to work fluidly and ethically with the 'whole person', I decided to embark on counselling training.

Counselling experience

I undertook a counselling skills course in 2014, then a Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (CPCAB, via Peterborough College, 2017). My course was integrative, with a humanistic stance and a core in the person-centred approach. We also studied other modalities to a more limited level, including psychodynamic, transactional analysis and creative approaches. One strength of the CPCAB curriculum was an emphasis on equality and diversity through an inter-sectional lens; we were required to explore our own prejudices, a painful but developmental experience. My placements were at CRUSE, with whom I completed a Certificate in Bereavement Care, and at a children and young person's counselling charity (CASY) with whom I completed a Certificate in Working with Children and Young People.

My client work (4,000 hours plus) has included a very broad range of mental health and wellbeing issues. I hold a Master Practitioner Diploma in Eating Disorders and Obesity (National Centre for Eating Disorders, accredited by British Psychological Society, 2017). I still work with clients struggling with eating disorders and disordered eating, as well as training and supervising other practitioners in this work. This work requires significant cognitive-behavioural and psycho-educational interventions, which I initially found difficult to reconcile with my person-centred values, but which have now become embedded as valuable approaches for some clients in my wider work.

I'd love to hear about your counselling, psychotherapy or helping practice, and think about how we might work together.

Training and development

During my consultancy career I undertook assignments to train managers in team leadership, project management and change management. I now occasionally deliver training courses with a colleague; recent courses include 'Certificate in Working with Eating Disorders' and 'Counsellor to Coach'. Developing and delivering training courses has deepened my knowledge in specific aspects of counselling and coaching, as well as reinforcing my skills in supporting others to learn and develop.

BACP Accreditation

I achieved my BACP accreditation in 2020 and learned a lot through the process, partly because I initially received a deferral! I have since supported two colleagues through their accreditations and was very happy that they were both successful first time. I have made it a priority to be informed about SCoPEd and its implications for our profession, and am very familiar with the current (until February 2026) and new (from February 2026) routes to accreditation and senior accreditation.

If you would like support in submitting an accreditation application I will be very happy to assist you in that, as part of our supervision.

Ethical Framework

I believe that the BACP Ethical Framework (including the new 2025/26 version) is a powerful, important and positive influence on our profession, and amongst the best work that BACP has done. I fully uphold its principles and guidance, and it is the bedrock for my supervision work.

Women in the counselling profession

An important value for me is around the role of women as practitioners, and how this is reflected in issues of professional status and earnings. Here are some (fairly ill-defined) thoughts on this subject

• like many other professions in which women are in the majority, counselling is often poorly paid. I think these facts are connected.
• one of the ways in which this plays out is that placement counsellors are expected to work essentially for free, and charities often rely on even qualified counsellors working for little or nothing. (As a charity chair, I do of course understand the pressures that charities are under to limit their expenditure)
• conversely, many of the leaders, writers and persons with high status in the profession are men. Which is interesting, isn't it?
• I am not anti-men - I have always had great relationships with male family, friends and colleagues and open-heartedly welcome male clients and supervisees. My concern is with systems and structures that disadvantage women (and others), and sadly our profession is not immune to these.
• unfortunately SCoPEd has the potential to reinforce existing structures (more specifically on socio-economic background than on gender) because it privileges those who have access to postgraduate academic courses

I try to live my values in relation to these issues, but can't claim to have done much. My tiny contributions include:

• I had come from a corporate background, in which whilst there was structural sexism, there was at least some attempt to think about gendered power and privilege. I was so shocked as a trainee to see that this didn't seem to be being thought about in the counselling profession that I wrote a letter to Therapy Today, which was published.
• In groups of practitioners, challenging narratives that promote the idea that counsellors (who are predominantly women) should be working for longer in low-pay or no-pay roles before they can legitimately earn a living
• A significant factor in my decision to take on the Chair role at Leicester Counselling Centre was to model being a woman in the (theoretically) most senior role in the organisation. Previously, this role and that of vice-Chair were held by men, while the weight of day to day (CEO) responsibility was held by a woman, and 90% of the counsellors were women.
• As Chair of Leicester Counselling Centre, devising and leading the implementation of the 'Qualified Counsellor Payment Scheme' which at least ensured that placement counsellors could quickly move into receiving some payment for their work.

If these issues are important to you, exploration of how they appear in your life and your client work can be part of our supervision work. If they are not, that is fine too.