Laura Martin

I offer online supervision on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - during term-time only.  

Contact lauramartincounsellor@hotmail.com.

My qualifications: 

MSc in Psychodynamic Counselling (UCL)

Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Wellbeing Multi-Disciplinary Practice (Tavistock Centre)

Diploma in Supervision (The Awareness Centre)

I have experience of working in schools as a teacher, a SENCO and currently as a school counsellor and supervisor.  In private practice I supervise school counsellors/therapists bringing together my interest in families, schools as organisations and developmental thinking.

My personal commitment to school counselling reflects my belief in providing young people with accessible and timely support at a point where many external psychological services are so stretched.  Currently, many school counsellors are called to work with increasing complexity and demand. Informed, thoughtful and collaborative supervision plays a vital role in ensuring our children and young people can connect with professionals who are themselves contained and supported.

I aim to provide supervision that is stimulating and restorative where careers are busy and challenging.  Working as a school counsellor is very different from working in other services.  My approach to supervision explores the practicalities of working with young children, adolescents, teachers and parents, alongside the internal worlds and representations that individuals bring to the counselling relationship.

My training and my essential approach are psychodynamic.  However, my own practice in schools encompasses knowledge of neuroscience, as well as developmental and systemic ideas.  The supervision I offer is integrative but with a distinct psychodynamic flavour, making frequent use of concepts such as projection and transference.  I am very interested in early infant experiences as well as transgenerational dynamics as a foundation for exploring the presentation of children and young people.

I often use the seven-eyed model of supervision which explores the relationship between children/young people and the outside world (the social and political), their internal worlds, the family, the therapeutic relationship and the supervisory relationship.   It is always fascinating and instructive when parallels emerge between the therapeutic relationship and supervisory relationship.  

This model also provides space to monitor the wellbeing of the counsellor and protect against professional hazards such as burnout.  Supervision is there to reflect on the impact of personal and professional pressures and to offer support that is not therapy but is restorative and caring.  To truly put young people at the centre of our work, the professionals around them need to be well. Supervision is a place to encourage this through playfulness and honesty. Self-care is so important yet we often relegate these considerations.  Clear contracting is a key part of creating a sense of safety and containment - see below.

Just as school counsellors like to see the young people we work with develop personally, it is very fulfilling to support supervisees in their professional development and I think this is an important aspect of supervision that applies to trainees and experienced practitioners.

In the supervisory relationship, a sense of trust and a good fit is important.  Before embarking on a session, I suggest a telephone conversation to discuss the supervisee's work setting and general requirements and wishes.  In my experience, online supervision can offer more flexibility and accessibility to the supervisee. Clear contracting is vital to a healthy supervision relationship.  In a first session, we discuss our supervision contract - where and how it may need to be tailored to the individual counsellor and the organisation.  It is very important at this stage for all parties to be clear about safeguarding procedures and policies in the relevant organisation/school and how this relates to the boundaries around supervision.  Questions of clinical responsibility will be explored and agreed.  

Supervision is all about the professional relationship and I hope to offer a transparent beginning that can address anxieties and difficulties as well as hopes and ambitions.  I am interested in knowing about the different experiences supervisees bring to their work as well as their relationship to each unique workplace/organisation.  I understand that counsellors may like to have a one-off session as part of a process of finding the right supervisor.  When we have embarked on a contract, this is reviewed at regular intervals through a collaborative process.