Rebecca Blanchard

Qualified in Integrative Clinical Supervision, my overall philosophy is to ‘provide a safe, containing environment, which fosters open and honest reflection and challenge to progress client work, alongside developing the clinical and professional skills of the supervisee.’ 

With a background in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (MSC) and Dynamic Interpersonal therapy (DIT), I understand and am passionate about the value of a strong supervisor/supervisee relationship. Over the years, my own supervision has been fundamental in my client work, increasing my confidence, theoretical understanding, analytical skills, and practical approach.

The supervision I offer is integrative in nature, based on a six-stage process, underpinned by established theory. This includes the Cyclical Development model (Page and Wosket, 1994), the Seven-eyed model (Peter Hawkins, 1985) and the Integrative Development model (Stollenburg, McNeil, Moulton, 2003).

Across all stages, I encourage creativity at the same time as working responsibly and ethically. Thinking about the cultural, social, economic, political and organisational elements are a key part of all stages in my model. At times, this may invoke powerful feelings, and the supervisory space needs to be containing enough to allow curiosity about difference, recognising that we are all human, with our own bias and discussing it openly can inform our work.

Whether you are training to be a counsellor/psychotherapist or an experienced practitioner, your development is central to our work together. I aim to be open and curious as an Integrative Supervisor about your modality, recognising that it may not be the same as my own. Understanding how you build trust, openness and containment with your clients to move the therapeutic work forwards is key. And of course, I will continue to use my own supervision to reflect and challenge my approach.   

I work both Zoom and in-person. 

My six-stage supervision model encompasses the following:

Establishing the frame of supervision

Early attention will be given to contracting and assessing your goals of supervision. We may want to think about boundaries, expectations, accountabilities, (e.g. organisation, professional body and training institution).

About you and your practice

Here, we will think about your modality, the number/complexity of your client group, how you manage boundaries, your own self-care and any immediate safeguarding/risk factors that require attention immediately.

Understanding the client material

Together we think about specific client/s and issue/s that you bring to supervision. How you present these is completely up to you (e.g. role plays, verbatim) and I will actively listen, reflect and think about how the client is presented and the themes/issues you bring.

Understanding the therapeutic dynamic

Reflecting together, we think about the strategies and interventions used with a client, how and why this moved the work on and potential alternatives that may have gained greater insight. I will also encourage you to think about the dynamics taking place between you and the client either consciously or unconsciously.

Understanding the supervisory dynamic

Not only does this have the potential to improve the working alliance, but reflecting on what is happening in the ‘here and now’ between us, may reveal unconscious processes, such as paralleling (Searles, 1962,) taking place in the therapeutic relationship.

Reflection of supervisory work back into client work

Here we think about how the new learning/awareness can be incorporated back into your client work. This may be overall awareness or a planned intervention with the client. If you decide on an intervention, we may think together about how this might be received by your client. 

It’s a very difficult, but important step you’ve taken already - recognising how you feel – and wanting to do something about it.

Whether your feelings are connected to a recent loss, breakdown in a relationship, anxiety related to work/studies, trauma, abuse or addiction – psychotherapy has the potential to help you.

As a qualified psychotherapist, I offer a safe, trusting environment, where the pace is determined by you. Over time, we can explore your feelings, memories and experiences, understanding the unconscious defences you’ve used to protect yourself in your everyday life. Together, we will make sense of these and work towards helping you find new and alternative ways of coping in the future.

I am a qualified psychodynamic psychotherapist, with an MSC from Birkbeck, University of London. I am also a qualified Dynamic Interpersonal Therapist (DIT), accredited by the British Psychanalytic Council (BPC).

I’ve worked with clients on a broad range of issues, including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self-harm, trauma, abuse, relationship issues and loss.

I have experience of working in both the community and in university settings, working for Waterloo Community Counselling for 3 years as a psychotherapist and the University Mentoring Organiation (UMO) for 4 years as a Specialist Mental Health Mentor. Working in private practice for the last 5 years, I’ve used psychodynamic and interpersonal/relational therapeutic approaches to help clients make sense of their deep-rooted feelings and work towards resolving them for a happier, healthier life.

I am able to offer psychotherapy on either a short-term or long-term basis, using zoom, telephone or in person.