PEER GROUP SUPERVISION
Supervision for People in Ministry
LEARN ABOUT THE SEMINAR
The program runs for 10 months meeting for 2.5 hours each session.
Duration
Numbers are restricted to a maximum of 12 people minimum 8.
Participants will be chosen and clustered with peers who have like roles in different contexts to maximise compatibility and engagement.
Availability
$100 per session total $1000 for professional development & supervision.
Cost
Thursday mornings 9:30 - 12 starting September 28th.
Thursday afternoons 1 - 3:30 starting February 1st.
Additional groups can be established at suitable times and locations according to need.
When
Professional supervision facilitates a safe holding space for soul work. Supervision can occur in facilitated groups, peer groups and one-to-one. Each setting offers different gifts and become valuable spaces for reflection. By fostering inner freedom, passion, joy and creativity, supervision supports life in all its fullness. Everyone engaged in ministry needs a safe holding space to reflect on their work through quality professional supervision.
Professional Supervision
This program counts as professional development and group supervision hours. Participants will be linked with others in a peer group that will be equipped to become an ongoing free space for professional supervision into the future. A small investment now, opens up free peer group supervision for years to come.
Peer supervision is one of the most cost effective and satisfying ways of engaging in supervision. Well established peer groups provide a safe space for every member to give and receive while rotating roles and fostering connectivity.
The program provides professional development in reflective practices, discernment and personal growth while establishing a profoundly engaging process of group supervision. This is a safe holding space for for meaning making amidst the dynamics of the ministry context.
The program runs over ten 2.5 hour sessions either weekly or monthly. It could also be run as a 2 -3 day intensive. Each session there is a professional development seminar and a group work session. At the end of this time, participants will be established in groups that can continue to provide independent peer supervision.
What’s on offer?
Who is this for?
The program is for people working in faith-based contexts who have roles guiding, caring for supporting and leading others:
Ministers, Pastoral Carers, Chaplains, Lay Pastors
Professional Development Seminar: ‘I am who I am’
‘I am who I am’, is the Holy name Moses Moses hears when he encounters a burning bush, People in ministry wonder ‘who am I? who are we? in whom do we belong? what are we becoming?’. The professional development seminars explore the ‘I am’ statements from John’s gospel where Jesus exploring identity and purpose. By exploring connectivity within and connecting with the great ‘I am’, participants articulate identity, purpose and inner vision in relationship with their ministry practice.
The group process will provide a space to discover who ‘we are’ as participants in the life of the Trinity. A creative model of group supervision is introduced, enabling exploration of dynamics in the spiritual companioning space. This process draws on Kim-Oliver Tietze ‘Six phases of Peer Group Supervision of Spiritual Direction’. Taking turns in defined roles, participants engage creative tools to explore cases or verbatim from their ministry practices. They see patterns that ripple through what happened in their workplace story and the companioning space into the group work. The group environment fosters a sense of trust and genuine care so participants freely enter into the reflective process gaining insights and clarity.
Group Work Sessions: ‘We are who we are’
Participants learn a range of exploration methods that can be used to explore the presenters issue. These include:
· Act storming
· Brain storming
· Contemplative Listening
· Sounding Board
· Inner Village
· Role play
· Discussion
· Externalizing through symbols
Group Work Sessions
Seminar Outline
Question: Where am I?
Skill: Introduction and orientation
Week 1: I am here – safe space
Week 2: I am who I am – we are who we are
Question: Am I safe?
Skill: establish group safety – foster self awareness – introduce listening skills
Week 3: I am the bread of life - companions
Question: What is feeds me?
Skill: slowing down and noticing
Week 4: I am the good shepherd – guides
Question: What to I like about myself?
Skills: gratitude, creating space, holding boundaries
Question: What do I need?
Skills: Notice the state I am in, connect with roots, what nurtures growth
Week 5: I am the vine – pilgrims
Week 6: I am the light of the world – felt sense
Question: what can I see?
Skill: psycho dynamics
Week 7: I am the door of the sheep - intuition
Question: What do I fear?
Skills: self protection & resistances as grace
Week 8: I am the way the truth and the life – grace
Question: Who am I?
Skills: self identity
Week 9: I am the resurrection and the life – contemplation
Question: In whom do I belong?
Skills: spiritual connectivity
Week 9 (cont): Who do you say that I am? – discernment
Question: Who am I becoming?
Skills: discernment … right place for me
Week 10: I will be who I will be – unity
Question: How then shall I live?
Skills: clarity of purpose
Meet the Facilitators
Rev. Joan Wright Howie
BA, BTheol, Grad Dip Supervision, MA Spiritual Direction
Joan is a Uniting Church minister, spiritual director and professional supervisor with 30-year experience in congregations, synod, chaplaincy, NGO, project and educational contexts. She is a member of the Australian Association of Supervisor’s (AAOS) Board of Directors and trains supervisors and spiritual directors alongside her private practice.
Julie McDonald
Having worked in diverse settings as a supervisor, therapist and educator I’m passionate about connecting people to what they think and feel, the way in which this shapes their lives and how they might wish to respond. I have a particular interest in compassionate ethics and the wisdom that can be acquired in coming to know ourselves and appreciating others.
