Supervision: the interdependence of professional experience and organisational accountability

This chapter provides the ways in which the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships' contribution to thinking about supervision addresses some of today's supervisory dilemmas. It argues that concepts relevant to supervision are relevant across the board of profession and agency—a belief perhaps not dissimilar to that of the analysts and social workers who brought together different approaches in founding the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships. The interdependence of the corners of the triangle does not necessarily require that the manager be the supervisor, but only that the lines of communication are clear between those responsible for the different functions. In the state of therapist and counsellor registration, even therapists in private practice are more clearly confronted with their organisational accountability. The concept of the triangles lends itself to looking, not only at what happens within a supervisory session or relationship, but at the place of supervision within its professional and organisational context.