7 Focus supervision model

(Based on the work of Peter Hawkins and Robert Shohet)

1. Focus on the directee

2. Focus on the interventions
3. Focus on directee-director relationship
4. Focus on director’s process
5. Focus on director-supervisor relationship
6. Focus on supervisor process
7. Focus on wider context

1. Focus on the Directee

Focus remains on the purpose not on “their problems” and how

we might (help them) solve them. It’s easy to objectify directees.
You might ask:

● How do they come into the room?

● How do they sit?
● How do they hold themselves.
● How do they talk?
● How do they view you?

2. Focus on interventions

Each of us only can only ever experience ourselves from the

inside.
That means there will always be aspects of ourselves that we
are
unaware of, things that perhaps others see, or which we hide
from
others, or which are completely hidden from ourselves and
others.

By focussing on the interventions you use with directees, you

can discover hitherto cover aspects of your relationships. You
might begin by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Do you use a certain kind of intervention more than others?

For example, if you ask a lot of questions:

1.1. For whose benefit are you asking?

1.2. What are you trying to discover?
1.3. Why?

1.4. What do you hold back and why?

1.4.1 Who are you protecting?

1.4.2 Who or what are you protecting them from?

1.3. If you could switch off the part of your mind that filters what
comes out of your mouth, what would you say to your directee?

1.3.1. What does that tell you about yourself?

 1.3.2. What does that tell you about your perception of your
directee?
1.3.4. What does that tell you about the relationship with
your directee?

3. Focus on the directee-director relationship

When you and your directee sit together in a session, you create
something greater than the sum of its parts: a relationship. The
relationship is created in the here-and-now by both
director and directee.

Paradoxically, although the quality of the relationship is often the

deciding factor in the directees growth, it is nonetheless an
intangible, ever-changing experience which can be difficult to
describe.

To help you get perspective on a direction relationship, it can be

useful to consider of the relationship creatively using metaphor,
or by taking a detached view of it. For example you might start
by asking yourself questions such as:

● 1. If you were shipwrecked on a desert island with your

directee, how would you each behave?
● 1.1. What would you do straight away to survive?
● 1.2. Imagine you’ve now been on the island together for a
● month. How are you each behaving now?
● 1.3. Think about your directee’s most recent session and
 ●

imagine you are watching it as an observer. What do you

notice about the directee and director?
● 1.4. If you were both animals, what would you be? (E.g. “I’m
a cat and my directee is a mouse.”)
● 1.4.1. How do you interact with each other? (E.g. “The cat is
chasing the mouse! ... I think my directee wants to run away
from me ... I think she’s scared ... I hadn’t thought of it like
● that.”)
● 1.5. What do you imagine is the transference and counter-
transference occurring in the relationship?

4. Focus on director’s process

Your process is the sum of your moment by moment thoughts,

e,options, sensations and behaviours in response to your
directee.
If you can gain an awareness of this process, you will discover
an invaluable stream of data that will allow you to learn much
about yourself, your directee and the relationship between you.

Focussing on your own process does not mean interpreting

what you know about your directee.

Questions to include are:

● Who do you feel emotionally in response you your directee?

● What are your physical sensations in response to your

directee?
● What thoughts do you have in response to your directee?
 ● Notice your body language...What are you saying with your
gestures?
● What do you imagine the directee to telling you covertly?
● What are you telling the directee covertly?

5. Focus on director-supervisor relationship

What happens in direction room may be subsequently played

out between director and supervisor. This is often called parallel
process.
For example, perhaps the director becomes angry, or tearful , or
petulant, etc, when talking about her directee and discovers that
in fact this directee is experiencing those sam emotions.

Parallel process may be more subtle, for example, recognising

when you feel bored, defensive, or other less obvious emotions
can help you understand the directee-
director system better.

Parallel process may also operate in reverse – the relationship

between you and your directee may mirror what happens
between you and your supervisor!

The following questions exemplify the kind of enquiry that helps

you recognise parallel process:

○ 1. How am I similar to my directee?

○ 2. What am I holding back from my supervisor?
 ○ 3. How do I regard my supervisor when I talk about my
directee?
○ 4. How to I regard my directee in the sessions
immediately after supervision?

6. Focus on supervisor’s process

One of my tasks as a supervisor is to turn my attention to my

own process similarly to how you as a supervisee turn your
attention to your process, as described in Eye 4.

By focussing on my process, I gain insight into parallel process,

the quality of supervisory relationship and my “relationship-by-
proxy” with your directee, which is how I imagine your directee
to be and how I imagine I might interact with them, were I in your
place.

My focus on my process can be help you identify aspects of

your relationship with your client that would otherwise be
unknown to you.

For example, I sometimes find myself attributing feelings to the

directee that resonate well with my supervisee:

“As you talk about your directee, I notice I’m feeling very
sad, I wonder how she might feeling?”

“Yes, that’s it, he does seem sad. He seems very sad”.

In this example, you can subsequently explore sadness with your
directee and allow him
to let you know how he is feeling.

Remember: When using focus 4 and focus 6, you and the

supervisors are not interpreting for the directee, you are each
focussing on your own processes

7. Focus on Wider Context

The wider context is the current and historical background of

the directee-director -supervisor relationship and is comprised
of two important types of influence, which some call
Stakeholders and Ghosts.

Stakeholders are those elements of the wider context which

currently influence the relationship. For example:

1. The organisation you work for (e.g. Church).

2. The regulating bodies we each belong to (e.g.Dio Europe,
SDI....).
3. Ethical frameworks to which we are bound.
4. The wider system of people and organisations (influences) in
the directee’s life
(e.g partner, children, parents, priest, counsellor etc).
5. The wider influences in my life.
6. The wider influences in your life

Ghosts are those elements of the wider context which are no

longer present, but who’s effects remain in the lives of you, me
and the client.

For example:
1. Schoolteachers.
2. Deceased family members.
3. Significant events.
4. Other people in our personal histories.

An understanding the external influences in the directee-

director-supervisor relationship can help you:

1. Work through impasse – when the spiritual direction

seems to be going nowhere, is it due to the
unacknowledged influence of a ghost or stakeholder?
(e.g. a director might be afraid of making certain
interventions because they have a Core Belief whic tells
them it would be wrong).
2. Identify common themes across your directee work
(e.g. are there certain consistent aspects of the way you
experience your directee, as the result of your
upbringing?)