Henderson Penny. A Different Wisdom: Reflections on Supervision in Practice, Guide to Supervision

Karnac Books, 2009. 266 p.
Language: English.Building a strong foundation
Beginning as a supervisor
Relationship climates
Encouraging resilience
Vulnerability
Learning from supervision
Developing a supervisory style
Developing the internal supervisor
Creative supervision
Taking supervisory authority
Coping with ethical dilemmas
Mistakes and complaints
Giving references and writing reports
Becoming more experienced as a supervisor
Supervision of brief counselling
Endings and retirement
Consultative supervision for supervisors
Concluding commentsBritain has a fine tradition of writing about supervision practice. This book connects to this by organizing reflection around the practice taken from the author’s sixteen years experience as a practitioner.
Taking three broad sets of tasks of supervision as an organizing frame, the book weaves examples of professional experience with current research and other reflective writing. From a broadly humanistic perspective, she examines the developmental journey of a supervisor interested in the overlap of the personal and the professional. Penny’s background in adult and higher education leads her to emphasize the learning that comes through development of practice wisdom in collegial supervisory conversations. Research has emphasized the importance of the relationship for effective supervision. This book combines an interest in creating and sustaining the relationship, with extending the development of the supervisee. It is unique in exploration of the pragmatics of practice, while describing the normative roles and tasks inherent in the part of supervisory work that focuses on the protection of the client.