ABSTRACT

This chapter explains with some accounts of supervision, describing what it involves – and what it does not involve. It looks at some ideas about supervision from a number of fields, in particular the mental health world, and examine how these might be adapted for primary care. The chapter also explains that supervision has three purposes: Normative, Formative, Restorative. If clinical supervision is not normative, it may be anarchic and ineffective. In mental health practice supervision is usually case-based and it is often undertaken between a senior practitioner and a less-experienced practitioner. Much supervision within the field of psychotherapy focuses on the feelings of the practitioner as the main source of information regarding the patient and the nature of the patient's problem. The potential of this kind of approach for revealing crucial information about the patient and about the therapeutic process is enormous.