[00:00:00] Marie Vakakis: Hello and welcome to the Inside Social Work Podcast, a podcast that aims to inspire, engage, and connect social workers with other social workers and allied health professionals doing interesting and amazing things across the world. I’m your host, Marie Vakakis. Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast episode.

[00:00:40] Marie Vakakis: Hello and welcome back to another solar episode with me. Hope you’ve been enjoying the guests on this, uh, season of the podcast. There’ve been some really amazing speakers and have had a lot of fun having those conversations and interviews with amazing social workers and other people in [00:01:00] the counseling field or mental health space.

[00:01:03] Marie Vakakis: A couple of episodes ago, I talked a little bit about the importance of supervision, and I’ll pop a link to that in the show notes. We hear supervision coming up a lot in the interviews and conversations I have where people are talking about how they use supervision as one of the tools to prevent burnout, to prevent compassion fatigue, and as part of their self-care and professional development.

[00:01:31] Marie Vakakis: And I think it’s really important to have not just individual supervision, but also group or peer supervision. And they are different. Uh, group supervision still has a head supervisor, essentially, so one person leading the supervision and peer supervision is more a collective approach where maybe everybody contributes and there’s no sort of one person taking the lead in that.

[00:01:59] Marie Vakakis: And for some of you [00:02:00] who are listening, perhaps you’ve picked up over the episodes. Some of my work history, and one of the things that I did earlier on in my career was work in the schools as a school counselor and wellbeing coordinator, and they were some of the best jobs that I had and also incredibly.

[00:02:19] Marie Vakakis: Lonely from a social work perspective, being the only social worker in an entire staff. So there would be tens, if not sometimes, you know, up to a hundred teachers, integration aides, administrative staff, and just me as the only social worker. And although I had individual supervision, which was excellent because it was offsite, so it was someone I chose with a skill set that was useful for the work I was doing.

[00:02:49] Marie Vakakis: It wasn’t until I started group supervision that I really started to benefit from the collective experience of other school [00:03:00] social workers and school counselors. And it really, it really was amazing. It helped me find, uh, ways to communicate with students with, uh, with their parents, with teachers, and understand some of the, uh, systemic issues that I was facing and how that was, uh, not just me in my school, but across other schools and other educational institutions.

[00:03:24] Marie Vakakis: And that really normalised some of my struggles and I was also able to get some really valuable. Practical ideas, tools, resources, referral options, like a whole bunch of stuff that when working as a sole social worker. Was really hard to get. A lot of that networking wasn’t possible. Uh, even when I did it was with, often with teachers because most of the schools had teachers and teachers were wonderful, but they didn’t have the same level of understanding in terms of a social work perspective and a systemic [00:04:00] lens and mental health understanding or counseling capacity that, that I had as a social worker.

[00:04:06] Marie Vakakis: And so having a group was really incredible. And so I thought as following on from the individual supervision, I wanted to spend some time today talking about the benefits of group supervision and how group supervision can provide

[00:04:24] Marie Vakakis: group supervision has a number of opportunities to benefit, not just your. Case conceptualisation and working with clients, but also in some of the networks that you create and some of the opportunities to connect with other social workers, allied health professionals, counselors, depending on the role and the type of supervision.

[00:04:44] Marie Vakakis: And so I wanted to list a few of the things that I think is really great about group supervision. Uh, one of the first ones is peer feedback, and that is really useful. I know I’ve found that particularly helpful in some of the group [00:05:00] supervisions that I’m in. One of them has had, uh, other participants share recordings of sessions, videos, different case conceptualisations, and.

[00:05:14] Marie Vakakis: I’ve been able to do the same, so it’s allowed me to get different eyes, different perspectives on a particular issue, and I’ll talk about that a little bit. More in just a moment. One of the other things that you get that peer feedback from is actually things that you’re maybe trying to develop as a particular skill.

[00:05:33] Marie Vakakis: So it could be in public speaking, you might find it really difficult to articulate yourself and be clear and concise in a group setting. So that can be one of the things that you talk to a group about that you want to improve on, and you can get that feedback and if that feedback is provided in a respectful.

[00:05:52] Marie Vakakis: And well thought out way. It can be so valuable because it’s done in a safe space rather than maybe in real life, in a work context [00:06:00] happening in that moment, and you might not have that opportunity for the same support. One of the other benefits is in social networking, and this is one of my favorites. I really love networking with other social workers and other allied health providers and through my peer supervision groups and some of the group supervisions that I run, as well as some of the ones that I attend.

[00:06:24] Marie Vakakis: It’s the networks that have been some of the most valuable things that I’ve taken away from that. In particular for me personally during Lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, some of my groups were the, the most consistent social connection that I had, and we were able to talk about some of our struggles personally and how that was impacting our professional work.

[00:06:49] Marie Vakakis: And it was really validating and normalising. And then I was also able to draw from that some really practical. Solutions when I [00:07:00] needed them. And that for me was amazing to have a group of other professionals who shared. An overlapping modality or client group that they were working with, that we could really nut those things out, and that was just incredible.

[00:07:14] Marie Vakakis: It’s also helped with creating referral options, both for me receiving referrals, but also knowing when someone comes to me with maybe an issue that I don’t work closely with. Or if I’m at capacity. I have a range of other professionals whose work I admire. I like their style or their vibe, or I just feel might be a really good fit and I can make some recommendations based on that.

[00:07:39] Marie Vakakis: And so that’s really helpful because it can have a long-term impact outside of that group supervision session with those social networks. The third thing I wanted to mention, so we’ve got the peer feedback, which is really helpful. The social networking is uh, what I like to call the hive mind, so it’s really having multiple listeners and multiple [00:08:00] perspectives.

[00:08:01] Marie Vakakis: For the same events, so well, you have great supervision with one person. Having five or six other perspectives can be so valuable. You get to hear a lot of different points of view, different frames of reference, and a wide range of ideas and perspectives, and that is so valuable and so crucial. That could be on a particular case or it could be about a particular topic.

[00:08:27] Marie Vakakis: It could be in the question someone poses or in the research that they recommend that you do, or the ideas, advice, feedback. It can be in so many ways. So this hive mind is really, really helpful. Some of the other benefits can be around developing empathy, and I think this can also be around compassion and self-compassion.

[00:08:50] Marie Vakakis: I think, uh, we can be quite critical of our own skillset and really. Be quite negative about what we don’t know. And yet when I run [00:09:00] groups, people are often so supportive of each other to a level that they often don’t apply for themselves. So I think there’s something really amazing when you get a group of people together and the session is run in a structured and supportive way that they can be empathy for other people.

[00:09:18] Marie Vakakis: There can be compassion and self-compassion. And I think that a group together can develop that heightened sense of empathy about a particular case or situation, or just hear the different things that are happening behind the scenes, whether it’s for the therapist or even maybe a different client perspective or a different client, uh, need or issue that’s coming up.

[00:09:42] Marie Vakakis: And I think that can be really valuable. Another couple of things that can be useful to think about is I mentioned earlier the idea of practicing something like public speaking, uh, and getting that feedback. This can be really great, [00:10:00] especially if you are advocating for yourself in a setting like, uh, a school or somewhere else where you’re, you might be the minority professional.

[00:10:10] Marie Vakakis: Practicing a case conceptualisation or talking about a treatment plan or even going through, uh, a letter or a support letter or a referral that you’re doing, whatever it is that you’re working on, having a number of people go through that and support you to articulate yourself, to showcase your knowledge, your understanding, maybe simplify language or.

[00:10:34] Marie Vakakis: Or provide more examples of particular things that you’ve mentioned. It can be really helpful to engage the whole group in providing feedback to that person, whether they’re presenting, uh, so in the way they public speak or in the content of something that they’ve produced or they’re working on. And so I really, I really do encourage people to consider group supervision.

[00:10:59] Marie Vakakis: Um, I know that [00:11:00] there can be some barriers. I think people sometimes wonder, oh, but you know, often they’re a little bit longer than individual supervision. So time might be a barrier. Uh, it might be that your supervision needs change over time. So trying to find a group, uh, that reads regularly on one that allows you to just come in and come out as required.

[00:11:23] Marie Vakakis: And also having a think about, I know some people find, you know, find it nerve wracking. Is it gonna be a good fit? So, like I mentioned in the solo episode, actually finding a supervisor who has a skill set that works for you. Now, this can be based on a particular area that you’re working in. So for example, you might want to find a supervision group that works with children or uses play-based therapy or.

[00:11:49] Marie Vakakis: Works in a school, or it could be based on a technique, so perhaps something like EMDR or acceptance and commitment therapy. Those are some of the examples of how groups can be formed. [00:12:00] So I, for example, I’m in an EMDR group supervision. I do an ACT supervision group. I also run one based on location. So for the therapy hub, the practice that I work in.

[00:12:11] Marie Vakakis: And then I’ve also in the past, attended supervision based on. The area of work like working in schools and one that was specifically for school social workers and then at different times I would go to one that was more broad, so included other wellbeing staff with a very specific focus on working with adolescents.

[00:12:32] Marie Vakakis: And so that has changed over time, depending on my needs. And I encourage you to have a think about where you can access some of these groups. And what are some of the ways that you can make the most out of that, just like we do with individual supervision? I know it can be really daunting for some people to work in a group.

[00:12:53] Marie Vakakis: Perhaps they feel like they’re not good enough or someone is going to make fun of them, or they’ll ask a question and people will [00:13:00] doubt their capacity as a, as a therapist or counselor or social worker. In my experience, that hasn’t been the case. I’ve. Been a part of a number of groups and when they are run well, they are fantastic and they have been some of the most positive experiences I’ve had working with groups in general, but in particular to my personal and professional development, and so.

[00:13:25] Marie Vakakis: If you are listening and you are working in a school as a school counselor, a school social worker, I wanted to announce that I’m running a small group supervision session. It’s not ongoing, so you can just attend the sessions that suit you. They are capped at six people. And we’re going to be discussing working with teenagers and adolescents, so very specific, limiting that age group to 12 to 18 year olds where we can look at mental health case [00:14:00] conceptualisation, working with families, uh, referral pathways outside of the school.

[00:14:05] Marie Vakakis: Whatever is coming up for you and the case that you bring, you’ll have the opportunity to ask for the resources of the whole group. As well as me as the supervisor. So if you’re interested, check out the show notes. There’ll be a link in that to the booking link and also, or you can check out the therapy hub.com au website and look under the supervision tab.

[00:14:28] Marie Vakakis: Now, hope that’s been helpful. I hope that you are getting some ideas of different ways that you can increase your capacity, uh, engage in learning, make networks, and um, there’ll be a couple more episodes coming up around. Different supervision ideas and different ways to, to get the most out of supervision.

[00:14:46] Marie Vakakis: I’d love to hear from you if there’s something that jumps out at you. If you’ve got some questions about supervision, feel free to send me a message, uh, Marie, M-A-R-I-E, at inside social work.com, or you can find me [00:15:00] on, uh, Instagram at Marie Vecas and send me a DM there. It’s been really great chatting to you all.

[00:15:07] Marie Vakakis: I hope you have a lovely day. Take care now. Bye. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast episode. The Inside Social Work Podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we record this podcast today and pay our respects to als past, present, and emerging.

[00:15:24] Marie Vakakis: Thank you for listening. If you would like to support the podcast, you could leave a rating or a review on iTunes or wherever it is you get your podcast. And feel free to join the Facebook group. It’d be great to hear from you. Have a lovely day. Bye.