Coaching Supervision — Empowering Coaches to improve their practice
Coaching, as a career, can be both rewarding and challenging. Difficulties aside, it is a noble job, no doubt, as you support and prepare your student or client to achieve their goals. As an ICF- International Coaching Federation and EMCC — European Mentoring and Coaching Council certified coach, I’ve had the privilege to partner with many coaches for over 8+ years by supporting them to expand thier frame of reference through Coaching supervision.
A coach partners with a client but what happens when a coach is in self-doubt. When he cannot find answers. In the field of psychology, often psychiatrists take counselling for themselves or go for psych-evals. We all are but human beings, we all can have our own struggles; therefore, supervision in coaching is not only important but necessary. I have often faced certain queries from other coaches like:
I’ve often noticed the following emotions with coaches -
“I am working on a challenging subject and I need some guidance.”
“I’ve been working for years and I tend to feel quite lost about my direction.”
“I want to explore my qualities as a coach, and sharpen my skills.”
“I feel I am not attracting the right client. I need support with this.”
Now, these are some general queries that I have faced, and they are all professional questions. There are certain personal queries as well, regarding personal development which emphasize on the necessity of the supervision in coaching.
Why is supervision in coaching important?
- Self-reflection
- A confidential space to open up
- Explore alternate working styles, new methods
- Sharpening existing skills
- A supervisor acts as the right partner to guide, and mentor the coach, particularly in times of self-doubt and self-criticism. The supervisor raises awareness levels around projections, transferences, and psychological games, a coach may be exposed to with his/her conscious awareness.
6 Challenges you can overcome with Coach Supervision
1) Transference and Countertransference
This is more of a personal challenge than a professional one, as it involves emotional attachment between the coach and the client. It can have both positive and negative impacts on the entire coaching process. Because of the mentor-learner relationship, a client can come to regard his/ her coach as someone with whom he/ she shares a close bond. Similarly, a coach can also experience countertransference, if he/ she starts connecting with the client in a more intimate way. For example, a client might start looking up to his/ her coach the way he/ she would with his/ her parents. On the other end a coach can start regarding a client as his/ her sibling or child, for the client might resemble some of the characteristics of the coach’s near and dear ones.
This complex emotional entanglement might not be realized in plain sight but with supervision it is possible to locate and to take necessary measures to maintain a healthy professional relationship. A coach supervisor partners with a coach in his/ her professional coaching journey and can make him/ her understand if there is any occurrence of transference or countertransference happening. This way a coach can derive adequate knowledge about the nature of the sessions and can be prepared to provide better professional services to his/ her clients.
2) Projection
A coaching session is multi-dimensional in nature. It could open up layers of personal emotions in the coach. Projection is a common occurrence in the coaching sessions. It indicates a situation where an individual projects his/ her inner turmoil on to the outside world or other people. In short it is an example of a complex empathy. During a session a coach can feel that the client resembles him/ her, or the client is going through similar situations or problems just as the coach did. A coach supervision session can help the coach understand the nature of projection he/ she might have had and prepare him/ her for future sessions.
3) Parallel Process
A parallel process occurs when a client projects their struggle on to the coach and reverse projection happens. This is an unconscious occurrence and there is a possibility that the coach might not be aware of this at all. A supervision coaching can shed light on the session and make the coach aware of the occurrence and prepare him/ her for the same.
4) Symbiotic Relationships
A coach has sessions with numerous individuals and their innumerable issues. Hence, the coach has to be prepared for different situations or issues all the time. Sometimes while dealing with clients one can face a problem of symbiotic relationship, i.e., the client and coach can have a relationship where there is utmost comfort level and they both agree on the same thing. For example, a child learns something from his/ her mother, and he/ she starts believing it so dearly that he/ she cannot think or agree on an alternate way of looking at it.
The client has to find his own answer as he is accountable to his life. If he starts agreeing to everything that the coach is telling him then it will be a grave problem for him later in life, while dealing with different issues. A coach supervisor prepares the coach for such occurrences so that such problematic symbiotic relationships can be avoided during the sessions.
5) Contamination
Contamination is basically transference of beliefs. It can happen from both ends of the client- coach relationship. Parent -children contamination for example often blurs the thinking of the adult (reference: Transactional Analysis by Eric Berne). Similarly, a client can contaminate a coach with his/ her strong belief in an issue and vice versa. Coach supervisor provides proper assessment of the occurrence and guides the supervisee with tools for psychological protection from the same. A coach who is going through supervision, would be able to recognize and separate the beliefs and different viewpoints in a more proficient way.
6) Games
A common challenge that can occur in a coaching session is the psychological games between a coach and a client. Here either of them can knowingly or unknowingly end up playing these games with the other. For example, Karpman’s model of the Drama Triangle, where the client may take on the role of the victim or persecutor and often delay the whole and real truth.
This triangle includes:
The victim: One who is always feeling the powerless or hopeless one and is unable to take decisions in life.
The rescuer: One who often feels inclined to rescue the person.
The persecutor: One who is always showing his/her superior traits while blaming others.
A coach supervisor who is observant can raise the awareness level in the coach regarding these occurrences.
Coaching supervision is an opportunity for betterment as a coach. This must be seen as a way to develop multidimensional perspectives while learning about current tools and techniques. Prominent organizations are all emphasizing on internal and external supervision as a necessity for personal as well as professional growth. Some powerful models and framework used in Coaching Supervision are 7 eyed supervision model — Peter Hawkins, Ego States, Transactions, Functional Analysis — Eric Berne. Coach supervision requires a different set of skills that includes training and guidance from highly skilled people.
Are you looking for a Coach Supervisor? Write to info@coachdrparas.com. I offer supervision coaching for organizations (internal coaches) and private practitioners who are looking to be a coach supervisor.
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