Publications from ODSW Social Work Supervsion | Page 70

Workshop 6: Teaching, Empowering and Discovering Supervision: Supervision Ideas Worth Sharing

A Supervision Model
Melanie then moved on to share a model of supervision that she uses based on her
experiences thus far as a supervisor. This model focuses on 4 areas in supervision.

Taken from Slides Presented at SWAAB Supervision Seminar 2015
1. Theory
This part of supervision focuses on the theories in social work. During supervision sessions,
it is good to bring theories alive, to bring out the concepts in them and to teach
supervisees how to apply them in their work. In this way, theories move from being distant
to being our ‘friends’ in practice.
Melanie shared that she would give her supervisees some exercises to go through for
themselves. For example, when teaching the Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT), which looks
at symbols and how one attaches meanings such as identity, worth and efficacy to symbols,
she would do an exercise together with her supervisees to bring out the concepts in the
theory. Using mirrors, she would ask “Who holds up mirrors for you as a child and as an
adult and what are these mirrors about?” Using activities to teach theories can help
supervisees to connect better with the theories. She gave another example of one of her
supervisees not understanding why people from violent relationships continue to return to
these violent relationships. Going through the loss theory helped her supervisee to
understand how people are attached to relationships and the loss they will feel when they
lose these relationships instead of labelling clients as “silly”.
2. Case Supervision
This part of supervision focuses on the case at hand. There are two parts to it:
a. Clinical case supervision which focuses on the macro skills:

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