CPD for Coaches and Consultants

Coaching Supervision

What is Supervision?

Regular meetings are held between the coach and their supervisor, which provide an opportunity to review his/her coaching activities and reflect upon any issues that emerge. This may involve discussion of particular cases, which will of course be undertaken with a full understanding of the requirements for confidentiality.

It is important that every coach should themselves have a safe environment in which to explore what is happening for them in their coaching relationships, as well as issues around their competence and any areas in which they or their clients appear "stuck".

From the client's perspective, the role of the supervisor should give confidence that there is an element of external quality control over the coaching process, a check that the process is running smoothly and that all key areas are being covered adequately.

The importance of supervision is increasingly being recognised by representative bodies and organisations working in the coaching field. The European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) has now issued its Code of Ethics which includes recommendations to business coaches that they should be in supervision as part of good practice. At PB Coaching we have a clearly expressed policy that all our coaches must be under regular supervision.

We also offer professional supervision to all business coaches and mentors and provide this at our coaching premises in Yorkshire on a 1-1 basis and group basis. Please note that we also offer Group Supervision in Leeds and if your organisation requires a supervision group for people undertaking coaching activities then we can tailor-make a supervision arrangement for you.

If you are looking for supervision for your coaching please contact us and we can let you know the dates for the ongoing supervision groups.

Guidelines for Supervision

We subscribe to the EMCC Guidelines on Supervision which can be found on the EMCC website. As for the volume of supervision our position is that it depends upon the volume of coaching being undertaken and, to a degree, the experience of the coach (although it is our view that all coaches benefit from supervision). As a minimum guideline, we recommend a two hour supervisory session for every 30 hours of coaching undertaken by more experienced coaches and one supervision hour to every 10 hours coaching for those in training or relatively inexperienced.