At The Eaves, supervision for counselling is central to the high-quality care we provide. Whether you’re newly qualified or experienced, good supervision supports your development, protects clients and helps maintain safe, ethical practice.
Below is a clear guide to what counselling supervision is, why it matters and the supervisor skills that make it truly effective.
Counselling supervision is a structured relationship where a more experienced practitioner supports a less experienced one. Together, they reflect on client work, discuss ethical questions, review interventions, and develop confidence and skill.
Importantly, supervision is not therapy. Instead, the focus is on improving clinical work and ensuring clients receive safe, effective, ethical care. In practices like ours, consistent supervision for counselling ensures the same high standards across all client groups: adults, children, couples, families and online therapy.
Supervision helps practitioners deliver thoughtful, evidence-based interventions.
It builds confidence, skill and clinical awareness.
Supervision creates space to discuss boundaries, safeguarding, risk and wellbeing which is crucial for protecting both client and practitioner.
Reflective practice encourages therapists to step back, notice patterns and learn from experience.
Supervision provides containment and emotional support to reduce burnout risk.
At The Eaves, supervision for counselling is embedded in every practitioner’s work to ensure clients always receive high-quality, well-supported therapy.
Effective supervision for counselling relies on certain essential supervisor skills:
Good supervisors understand a range of therapeutic models and can guide case formulation and skill development.
They balance challenge and support, offering feedback that strengthens clinical work.
They maintain clarity around confidentiality, competence, safeguarding and the difference between therapy and supervision.
They support the supervisee to reflect on emotional responses, client dynamics and the therapeutic process.
Good supervisors build trust, repair ruptures and adapt to different learning needs.
They also receive supervision-of-supervision to maintain standards.
Supervisors may draw on a range of supervision models, including:
• Reflective models – deepening insight into process and practitioner responses
• Person-centred supervision – collaborative and supportive
• Cognitive-behavioural approaches – structured, skills-focused
• Systemic or integrative models – ideal for couples, families and children
At The Eaves, supervisors use varied models so supervision can be tailored to the supervisee’s training, client work and development needs.
When selecting supervision, it helps to ask:
• Does the supervisor have experience with my client groups?
• What supervision model do they use?
• Are boundaries and expectations clear in a supervision contract?
• How is feedback delivered?
• Do they support reflective practice and self-awareness?
• How do they handle ethical issues, safeguarding and risk?
Choosing the right supervisor helps protect clients and supports your professional growth.
Here’s how we integrate strong supervision for counselling across our practice:
• Supervision is available six days a week, across all our Surrey sites and online.
• We support practitioners working with individuals, children, couples and families.
• Our approach aligns with NCPS, BACP and HCPC ethical frameworks.
• We match supervisees with supervisors who specialise in their client groups.
• Supervisors themselves receive ongoing professional development and supervision.
Supervision is not an add-on, it is essential to how we maintain safe, ethical and effective psychological care.
• Supervision for counselling strengthens practitioner development and protects clients.
• Ethical supervision and reflective practice are core to safe, effective therapy.
• Supervisor skills include clinical expertise, clear communication and relational competence.
• No single model works for everyone, supervision should be flexible and tailored.
• At The Eaves, supervision underpins the high-quality care we deliver across all our practices and online services.
Supervision at The Eaves Counselling and Psychology Ltd is available to counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and trainees working across a range of modalities. Whether you are newly qualified, in training, or an experienced practitioner, we can match you with a supervisor who understands your client work, be it adults, couples, families, children, or online therapy. Our supervision service is also available to external practitioners who are not part of The Eaves network.
Professional bodies such as the BACP and NCPS recommend that practising counsellors have at least 1.5 hours of supervision per month or a minimum of one hour for every eight hours of client work. Frequency can vary depending on experience, caseload complexity, and the nature of the work. Trainee or newly qualified counsellors often require more frequent supervision to build confidence and competence.
A typical supervision session involves reflecting on client work, discussing therapeutic process, exploring challenges, and reviewing ethical issues or risk. Supervisors may also use techniques such as role-play, case formulation, or reviewing session recordings to deepen understanding. It’s a collaborative process designed to enhance learning, support self-awareness, and ensure safe, effective practice.
Although the terms are often used interchangeably, clinical supervision is a broader concept used across health and social care, while counselling supervision specifically supports therapeutic work. Both involve reflective discussion, ethical oversight and professional growth. Counselling supervision tends to focus more deeply on the therapeutic relationship, process and self-awareness, whereas clinical supervision may include multidisciplinary or organisational aspects.
This diploma is a professional training programme designed for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists who want to develop their skills in providing effective, ethical supervision. It is delivered by The Eaves via the “Eaves Academy”. See full details here: Supervision Diploma