Training and supervision

Clinical supervision of health professionals is very important to ensure quality of clinical care.

I receive individual clinical supervision from Peter Philippson. Additionally, I am a member of two peer supervision groups, one formed by Gestalt colleagues, and the other by colleagues of various approaches.

As a supervisor, I have experience supervising psychology and psychotherapy trainees, fellow psychotherapists and others such as art therapists and counsellors.

I completed two supervision courses: one specifically for supervising psychotherapists and counsellors at the University of Central Lancashire, lasting one year; the other more focused on supervising clinical psychologists and other professionals, such as nurses, at the University of Lancaster, lasting three days.

The supervision model I like to use most is the Seven-eyed model of Hawkins and Shohet.
In my article “Clinical supervision in older adult mental health services” I compare the Seven-eyed model with the Cyclical model and enrich the analysis with reflections peculiar to work with older people.

There have been several teaching experiences to which I have been invited, to list some of the more recent ones:

• the workshop ‘Ageing and ageism in the therapy room’ for the North West Regional Psychotherapy Association (NWRPA)
• a series of webinar presentations and workshops for Psy4Psy (Moscow, Russia): “How to support healthy ageing”; “Psychotherapy with older clients – what needs to be considered” (part 1&2); “Ageing in the therapy room”; “Promoting healthy ageing through memory programmes”.
• presentations at the national Psy4Psy conferences in 2020 and 2021: “Stereotypes of ageing”; “New challenges in older age”.
• training day for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Lancaster University: “Dementia assessment & intervention”.

On my own initiative, I have conducted several workshops at the Manchester Gestalt Centre, the most recent of which are now available online, see the “webinars” page: “The process of self in later life: a Gestalt view”; “Ageing identity: the story teller self”; “Ageing and ageism in the therapy room”.
In addition, I have been selected to present workshops at national conferences:

• of the Faculty of the Psychology of Older People (FPOP): ‘Ageing identity: a story teller self’ (2017); ‘Unfolding the unwanted ageing stereotypes in the professional-patient relationship’ (2019)
• of the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute (GPTI): “The three ages of a client: what about the third one?” (2018)

and most recently at international conferences:

• at the 5th International conference on research in Gestalt therapy (2022): ‘Measuring the efficacy of Gestalt therapy to treat depression in people with dementia‘
• at the EAGT Gestalt conference 2023: ‘”I am young, I am old”: contemporary aspects of ageing in our society and in the therapy room’

I have experience as an assistant trainer on Gestalt psychotherapy training courses at the Manchester Gestalt Centre to which I brought the novelty of ageing and Gestalt therapy in the programme.

Training for other professions
I also make my knowledge and experience available to companies that want to pay attention to aspects of psychological well-being, ageing and the transition to retirement of its employees.