ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the complexities of the supervisory role in relation to some of the supervisory skills and capacities that are involved. There is a pressing need for agreed basic training standards that can apply across the profession of supervision with core curriculum and learning outcomes. Organisations that employ counsellors and supervisors need to be transparent about what criteria they are using for the selection of their supervisors. Each organisation needs to have a developed framework that ensures high standards of clinical and supervisory governance to ensure the delivery of high-quality counselling services in the primary care setting. One of the main functions of supervision is to ensure the best possible psychotherapy practice. Responsibility for transparency and accountability are important components of the practice of supervision. The supervisor is best placed to stand outside the heat and tension of the relational dynamics and to enable the counsellor to see just where unconscious factors are coming into play.
