Ethical case studies - Supervision
Wendy-Ann Smith
Founder | Ethics & Wellbeing Authority | Coaching Psychologist | Pioneer in Positive Psychology & Coaching Integration | Educator, Speaker & Consultant
Editors:
Chapter 4
Theme: Supervision
Case Study 6?????
Collusion brought to coach supervision.?
Author: Eve Turner
A coach comes to supervision with concerns about a new external assignment.??These include boundary management, issues with contracting, clarity of outcomes, risks to confidentiality, bullying and racism, the latter two being among the coach’s ‘hot spots’.
The coaching client, a team leader ostensibly trying to improve poor performance in her team, is being accused of bullying.??She herself feels she is being bullied and subject to racism from her team, and feels unsupported by the organisation. While the organisation’s outcomes relate to the coaching client changing her approach to the team, the coach’s concerns are around the client’s well-being and mental health.??
The coach has organisational knowledge he is unwillingly privy to that may affect the client’s career.??He believes she is unaware of this information and its possible influence on her future.??The coach reflects he is being drawn into seeing the situation from the client’s perspective and is in danger of collusion and not building a collective picture. The coach also has concerns about risking trust and is uncomfortable knowing he has ‘secret’ information that could impact negatively on the client. He also fears he may jeopardize a long-term professional relationship with the client’s line manager.??
Case Study 7?????
When mental health shows up in cross professional Group Supervision – listening to different perspectives.?
Authors: Anne Calleja & Carol Whitaker
The case is a cross-professional supervision group of four coaches and two therapeutic coaches, co-supervised by two accredited supervisors – one an executive coach and supervisor and the other a clinical psychotherapist, supervisor, and leadership coach. Co-facilitated supervision offers the opportunity for supervisors to complement each other’s style, explore the learning from working with difference and role model trust and vulnerability?(Whitaker, & Lucas, 2012). The supervisors work together to role model the value of working with different perspectives and backgrounds.??
This case study demonstrates how cross professional supervision can add value and provide a pathway for exploration that meets the coach where they are, and helps them support a coaching client who arrives with mental health issues.?
An exploration of the human response and how to ‘contain’ a safe space, by not going beyond the coaches competency and capability. Different and wider systemic perspectives and contracting with the complex relationships between coach and coaching client/s, coach and supervisor, coach, and organization are considered.
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Case Study 8?????
How Many Hats??
This case study explores the discussions held in a group coaching supervision session, when one of the coaches asked the group to support him in preparation for an upcoming alignment meeting with client and sponsor. The coach appeared to be oblivious to the multiple implicit and explicit contracts in the working relationship which led to role confusion and difficulty in establishing clear boundaries in his conversations with the sponsor. This led the coach to frame his challenge to the group as needing to step in wearing a conflict mediator hat. The group’s initial exchange failed to address the issues arising. The supervisor noticed the effect - on herself and all group members - of the parallel processes that seemed to reflect not only the systemic role confusion, but also a tendency to resist holding candid and clear conversations about expectations, roles, and responsibilities.
Case Study 9????
Intersectionality and Supervision through bereavement.?
Author: Mongezi C Makhalima, PhD
During Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown, more than in any period prior, the issue of grief, bereavement and loss showed up persistently in supervision. This raised intersecting boundary management issues relating to individual, task, gender, role and culture. This case study presents the complexities these factors bring to the coach supervision space, specifically highlighting the issue of grief and bereavement as a task and role boundary issue within a supervision session.
Case Study 10???
Dual Roles: Coach Educators serving as Coach Supervisors.?
Author: Carrie Arnold, PhD, MCC
Coaching supervision within coach training programs is beginning to emerge. Ethical considerations of the dual role of the instructor, which also assumes the evaluator, and coaching supervisor, have yet to be explored. A pilot project and a comparative study with students in an advanced Mastering Coaching Skills course throughout Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and parts of Latin America conducted by Espinal & Rodriguez (2023), found "100% of the participants who received supervision recommended including it in training programs" (p.306). Each participant was already serving, in some capacity, as a coach. The pilot project established that 100% of the supervisees recognized an impact on their way of being as coaches compared to their 'doing.' This acknowledgment of 'being' suggests reflective practice, identity, and coaching mindset were all deepened during the coursework. Their coaching competencies also improved because of increased confidence and awareness. These findings are significant to consider as coach training programs continue to update their educational models and determine the core curriculum. Coach Supervisors must create a safe psychological space for coaching clients to reflect on their practice. However, the duality of roles may create ethical dilemmas if supervisors also serve as educators, evaluating student competencies.?
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These look lik fantastic case studies Wendy-Ann Smith Can’t wait to get my hands on your book ??
Important, for me, to have a dialogue. Through engagement and discussion, sharing views and experience, we can reflect, be better informed, raise awareness, recognise and decide appropriately and ethically how to engage with our clients to meet there needs. e.g. contracting, competence and capability. This book provides a stimulus and forum for discussion a range of contexts. Well done Wendy-Ann et al.
Emotional Intelligence Coach
1 年Without regulation, ethics are a complete waste of time. Life Coaches will continue to be coaches without any training or experience in anything.