网爆门 Supervisors Event 2025 - 网爆门 - British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy

网爆门 Supervisor's Event 2025
Programme

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Supervisors event 2025

The event aims to provide practitioners in the field of supervision with essential tools and resources to enhance your supervisory practices. This event will focus on creating a comprehensive toolkit that participants can utilise in your day-to-day supervision role, ensuring you leave with tangible takeaways that can be immediately applied.

The event will take a deeper dive into ethical complexity in supervision.

Join us in-person on鈥�Thursday 25 September 鈥痜rom鈥�9:00am until 5:00pm at the Leeds Marriott Hotel.

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Programme

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Time	Strand 1 Organisational context Thomas Ambler 1 & 2	Strand 2 Trauma Thomas Ambler 3	Strand 3 Supervision in the modern world Brodrick Suite
9.00am to 9.30am	Registration and welcome drinks
9.30am to 9.40am	Event welcome
9.40am to 10.40am	Keynote presentation: Becoming a trauma wise supervisor, presented by Christiane Sanderson
10.40am to 11.00am	Break & networking
11.00am to 12.00pm	Managing the power dynamic and associated dual relationships in supervision, presented by Belinda Ford	Culturally attuned supervision: Navigating ethical complexities in supervising clinical practice with asylum seekers, refugees and displaced communities, presented by Myira Khan	Supervising ethically in the digital age: considerations and challenges,听 presented by Darlington Zvionere听
12.00pm to 1.00pm	Lunch
1.00pm to 2.00pm	Transformational Potential of Supervision for Children and Young People when provided to Senior Leaders in Education, presented by Lisa Lea-Weston	Supervising professionals working with survivors of sexual violence: safeguarding, adaption, and trauma-informed practice, presented by Abby Foord and Kerrie Best	Politics in Supervision: exploring the contemporary political landscape, presented by Faisal Mahmood听
2.00pm to 2.20pm	Comfort break
2.20pm to 3.05pm	Organisational context workshop discussion	Trauma workshop discussion	Supervision in the modern world workshop discussion
3.05pm to 3.20pm	Refreshment break and networking
3.20pm to 4.20pm	Keynote presentation: What ethical responsibilities do we hold to recognise racial dynamics, intersectional identity, and embed antiracist practice in supervision?, presented by Kemi Omijeh
4.20pm to 5pm	Panel discussion
5pm	Event close

This programme is subject to change

This keynote examines ways in which supervisors can incorporate a trauma lens when supervising practitioners who work with traumatised clients, and how a Trauma Informed Approach can act as a scaffold to听 practitioners primary modality. It will explore how the awareness of the Trauma Informed Approach along with Shame Sensitive Practice can resource supervisors and supervisees to gain a deeper understanding of trauma-based presentations, the range of clinical manifestations, their impact on the therapeutic relationship and the range of challenges and dilemmas that trauma-based practitioners encounter, and how to manage these effectively. In understanding the fundamental principles of trauma informed care, supervisors can model safety, choice, collaboration, and empowerment in an inclusive, non-shaming and non-judgemental supervisory space to facilitate good practice. Emphasis will be placed on how supervisors can recognise and support supervisees in managing the impact of working with trauma-based presentations, and how to promote self-care to mitigate the risk of burn-out, vicarious traumatisation, and secondary traumatic stress. In encouraging compassionate curiosity, equalising power dynamics, promoting epistemic equality and humility,听 supervisors can enable practitioners to transform the challenges of working with traumatised clients into the most rewarding work that leads to vicarious post traumatic growth.

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Christiane Sanderson听is a former senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton, of London with 37 years of experience working in the field of childhood sexual abuse, sexual violence and complex trauma. She has delivered training for therapists, counsellors, teachers, social workers, nurses, the police and faith communities. Her research interests span trauma informed therapeutic practice, PTSD, Complex Trauma, CSA, domestic abuse and Narcissism. She is the author of a number of books including Working with Survivors of Sibling Sexual Abuse: A Guide to Therapeutic Support and Protection for Children and Adults; Counselling Skills for Working with Shame,听Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma: Healing from Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse, Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd edition,听 and the self-help book The Warrior Within: A One in Four Handbook to Aid Recovery from Sexual Violence. She is a trustee for the Charity One in Four

The session aims to invite participants to critically reflect on their ethical responsibilities in recognising racial dynamics, intersectional identity, and the need to embed antiracist practice in supervision. It invites participants to think further about what goes unspoken in the supervision space. Through case examples and reflective prompts, the session will explore how racialised and intersectional identities shape the supervisory relationship and the wider therapy space.

Ultimately, the aim is to move beyond theoretical awareness towards practical and ethical engagement with and embedment of antiracist practice. Highlighting how supervision can be used as a space for accountability and a powerful catalyst to create culturally responsive and inclusive practice in mental health.

Kemi Omijeh (she/her) is an experienced therapist, supervisor and co-founder of We are Akoma Ltd, a training consultancy. She works in a culturally informed and creative way to help individuals, teams, and organisations to deepen their understanding of inclusive mental health which embeds racial equity and cultural awareness at the core. As an antiracist and cultural competence trainer, Kemi is known for her work in championing racial equity in the education and mental health sector.

She has extensive experience in education settings, as well as within local authority and corporate contexts. With experience as a Black woman in leadership, Kemi brings a unique blend of lived experience and psychological expertise to her work, recognising the nuanced impacts of marginalisation and understanding challenges that are rooted in systemic issues rather than personal shortcomings.

Kemi鈥檚 work is to champion racial equity in mental health and education and encourage courageous conversations and action, around antiracist practice.

The session will focus on how power is managed in supervision. It will consider how power is impacted by the dual roles that supervisors have in relation to their supervisees (eg providing support whilst gatekeeping) and the dual relationships they have (eg supervisor and line manager). The power dynamic is often not acknowledged or discussed in supervision. Similarly the dual roles and relationships that supervisors have with supervisees are not always transparent. As a result power can be misused. And the existence of dual roles and relationships can cause role tension for supervisors. These factors risk the creation of ethical dilemmas as supervisees are encouraged to be open with their casework in supervision and seek support whilst at the same time being evaluated and assessed.

Session aims:

To understand how power can impact the supervisory relationship, in theory and in practice.
To understand the effect of dual roles and relationships in supervision and the tension that supervisors can hold as a result of both factors.
To consider the risk of ethical dilemmas occurring because of issues related to power dynamics and dual roles and relationships.
To enable delegates to reflect on how these issues might impact their own supervisory relationships.
To generate discussion and reflection on the topics raised.

Belinda Ford is a Research Fellow at the 网爆门 with 10 years clinical experience. Before joining the 网爆门 in January 2025 she worked for Relate as a counsellor and supervisor and also held Clinical Lead and Senior Practice Consultant roles. Belinda trained with Relate in 2014. She has a master鈥檚 degree in Relationship Therapy, and is a qualified psycho-sexual therapist. Her practice was integrative, being primarily systemic and psycho-dynamic. Belinda trained as a Clinical Supervisor in 2019. Whilst studying for the supervisor qualification she was struck by the tension she was holding in the role in synthesising the different functions. Belinda was already interested in studying for a professional doctorate and decided to take this experience as the starting point of her research and study the lived experience of Relate supervisors. Belinda studied with the Open University and completed her doctorate in 2025.

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This session will explore the ethical challenges and professional complexities of delivering clinical supervision in trauma-focused environments, with a particular focus on working with survivors of sexual violence. Drawing on a breadth of experience in the sexual violence sector, and ongoing research with ISVAs, examining how supervision models may need to adapt to meaningfully support a range of practitioner roles鈥攊ncluding counsellors, advocates, mental health workers, and other frontline professionals.

This session will consider how the nature of sexual violence as a presenting issue introduces distinct relational, emotional, and ethical dynamics into the supervisory space. These dynamics often intersect with high-risk safeguarding responsibilities, suicidality, and engagement with the criminal justice system鈥攅lements that can significantly shape both the content and function of supervision.

Recognising that supervision is not one-size-fits-all, the session will explore what supervisors need to understand and consider when working across different professional boundaries and support contexts. Whether supervising counsellors within clinical frameworks, ISVAs navigating advocacy and legal systems, or social prescribers responding to survivor disclosures, this session will examine what it means to provide supervision that is not only reflective and safe, but survivor-informed and responsive to the practitioner鈥檚 role and setting.

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Abby Foord is a qualified trauma-informed counsellor with five years鈥� experience in the sexual violence sector. She currently works as a Sexual Violence Consultancy Manager at LimeCulture, where she brings expertise in both frontline support and service development. Abby has a background in research methodology and recently presented her work at CCRI鈥檚 European Congress of Narrative Inquiry, exploring how societal and intersectional narratives influence vicarious trauma in counsellors.

Prior to joining LimeCulture, Abby worked in the mental health and charity sectors, including as a Social Prescribing Link Worker. Alongside her consultancy role, she runs a private counselling practice specialising in support for survivors of sexual violence.

Kerrie Best is Director of Sexual Violence Services at Lime Culture, where she leads consultancy and training initiatives focused on the prevention of and response to sexual violence. With 17 years鈥� experience in the sector, she previously served as Head of Service Delivery at West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre. A qualified counsellor and trainer, Kerrie has held leadership roles across the third, academic, and corporate sectors. She has developed nationally recognised qualifications and programmes, including ISVA leadership development and academic modules on sexual violence and human rights. Kerrie holds a Master鈥檚 in Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In a time of deepening global displacement and rising hostility towards migrants, therapeutic work with asylum seekers, refugees and displaced communities calls for clinical supervisors to hold space for profound ethical, cultural, and political complexity. This workshop focuses on cultivating culturally attuned and anti-oppressive supervision, from a position of Working within diversity, where supervisees are supported to reflect deeply on their own positionality, navigate dilemmas with integrity, and practice with cultural humility, curiosity and empathy. In this session participants will explore how to supervise in ways that honour the cultural narratives of clients, support supervisees in confronting systemic injustice, and challenge the power dynamics that shape both therapeutic and supervisory spaces, to be able to offer culturally attuned and anti-oppressive supervision to their supervisees, supervision process and supervision relationships from a position of working within diversity.

Myira Khan is a multi-award-winning Accredited Counsellor, Supervisor, Coach, Trainer, Founder of the Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network (MCAPN), and published author with Working Within Diversity 鈥� Anti-Oppressive Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Myira has over 15 years of clinical experience, alongside delivering workshops, trainings and events, including on Working Within Diversity and anti-oppressive practice.

Working Within Diversity, both the book and accompanying workshops, is a culmination of her clinical experience alongside extensive training experience delivering workshops on identity and diversity, to create a robust foundation and framework for anti-oppressive practice in therapy, supervision, coaching and all practitioner-led practices.

A visibly Muslim, neurodivergent, ethnically-minoritized practitioner, Myira represents a diversity within the therapeutic and coaching professions, promoting counselling and coaching to ethnically-minoritized, Muslim and under-represented marginalised communities and clients.

This session will introduce the importance of supervision for Senior Leaders in Education and will explain the impact (including wellbeing) on the individual supervisee, the children and young people they work with, the setting鈥檚 Senior Leadership Team and the setting along with the wider community. The session will acknowledge and pay attention to the restorative aspects of supervision due to the need to acknowledge the lack of supervision in education. It will explore the impact of the pandemic and consequential socio - economic climate as well as global instability. A consequence of this being an acute decline in retention, compassion fatigue and burnout within the profession.

The session will cover how supervision, when scaled up, supports the capacity for ethical complexity to be better contained in school cultures and systems and will share several case studies where either a whole school is in supervision with Talking Heads and/or where the whole of SLT are in supervision with us. We will acknowledge the complexities that exist for us as a team as we scale up and how this is reflected back in the safety we need to support in education systems. How does this work safeguard children and young people?

Lisa Lea-Weston is the Founder/Director of Talking Heads Supervision. They work across the UK with a team of 50 Associates who deliver ongoing regular supervision to senior leaders in education. They work in-depth to bring about both individual and cultural transformation which holds children and young people at its heart.

She oversee the quality assurance of the Wellbeing for Senior Leaders Programme for Education Support where senior leaders in education in England can access six monthly sessions of supervision with a qualified supervisor. She also worked with Education Support to run similar projects in Northern Ireland and Wales.

Lisa worked for 10 years in the NHS as clinical lead for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and in acute adult mental health. She was deputy manager of the Art(s) Therapies service.

She retains a supervision practice with Senior Leaders and a small clinical dramatherapy practice with teenagers.

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This interactive workshop equips trained clinical supervisors with the knowledge and tools to practise ethically in the fast-evolving digital landscape. Through real-world digital dilemmas, practical activities, and actionable strategies, supervisors will strengthen their confidence in protecting privacy, managing boundaries, and supporting supervisees while adapting to new technological and regulatory demands in clinical supervision.

Ethical Boundaries in Digital Spaces: Negotiating blurred professional/personal boundaries when supervisees and supervisors are connected across multiple online platforms.
Confidentiality and Data Security: Addressing risks around online records, cloud storage, encrypted communication, inadvertent data breaches, and compliance with diverse regulatory frameworks (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).
Cultural and Equity Considerations: Recognising how digital access, differing comfort levels with technology, and cultural perceptions of online supervision affect equity and inclusion in supervisory relationships.
Power Dynamics in Digital Contexts: Exploring how supervision online can shift dynamics鈥攕uch as authority, safeguarding, and transparency鈥攅specially when supervisees may feel both empowered and exposed in virtual spaces.
Managing Presence and Relational Depth: Identifying strategies to foster trust and attunement when digital settings alter non-verbal cues, silence, and immediacy.
Cross-Jurisdictional Ethical Challenges: Navigating supervision that spans different geographical regions, legal obligations, and regulatory variations.
AI and Emerging Technologies: Considering ethical implications of supervisees integrating AI-driven therapeutic tools, apps, or platforms into client work, and supervisors鈥� responsibilities in evaluating these practices.

Darlington Zvionere is an accredited Psychotherapeutic Counsellor, Clinical supervisor, and mental health advocate with a distinguished track record as a Consultant in the health and social care sector. He specialises in mental health governance, service improvement, and culturally competent care. Darlington is recognised for his leadership as Head of Clinical Services and his dedication to advancing mental health support for diverse communities. His experience spans over 20 years in the mental health field.

Darlington is actively involved with Black Minds Matter UK, a registered charity focused on connecting Black individuals and families with free, culturally appropriate one-to-one talking therapy delivered by qualified Black therapists. Through his work with Black Minds Matter UK, Darlington champions the charity鈥檚 mission to break down barriers to mental health care, raise awareness through education, and advocate for systemic change in statutory services. The organisation鈥檚 vision is to see a community of Black people readily accessing mental health support, recovering fully from mental illness, and thriving.

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The notion of a non-dualistic position, which recognises that we are inseparable from our world, requires us to adopt a holistic worldview. We are living through times of significant change in our political landscape, and this inevitably impacts our clients and supervisees. The surge of right-wing politics, overt racism, the spread of populism, wars, economic uncertainty, and social injustice are among the key challenges the world is grappling with today.

Social media is filled with hostile political rhetoric such as claims that the system is broken, trust no one, climate change is a hoax, mainstream media is lying, take back control, and protect our freedoms, widening divisions and fuelling fear. This session will create space to explore how we can best support our supervisees who are working with clients affected by these issues. Together, we will reflect on how to navigate the ethical, legal, and moral dilemmas that arise in supervision and consider how, as practitioners, we can remain grounded and effective in an increasingly divided world.

Session aims:

Explore how wider political, social, and cultural changes influence clients and supervisees in therapeutic and supervisory contexts.
Reflect critically on ethical, legal, and moral dilemmas that arise in supervision within politically charged and divided contexts.
Explore ways of supporting supervisees to remain grounded and effective when working with clients impacted by social and political unrest.

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Dr Faisal Mahmood听is a 网爆门-accredited counsellor, a UKCP-registered individual and group psychotherapist, and a UKCP-approved clinical supervisor. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Currently, he works as Head of Subject 鈥� Counselling, Psychotherapy & Talking Therapies at Birmingham Newman University, where he leads a portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including professionally accredited courses (accredited by 网爆门, UPCA, and BPS). In addition to his university role, Faisal is Vice Chair and Head of Training Standards at UTC (University Training College, UKCP college). With over 25 years of clinical, supervisory, and management experience, Faisal has worked with clients and staff in diverse settings, including GP surgeries, hospitals, the voluntary sector, and private practice. He also runs a private practice in Solihull, where he offers therapy, clinical supervision, and a range of CPD training events.

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网爆门

Supervisors event 2025

Book your place

Programme

Time

Strand 1

Organisational context

Strand 2

Trauma

Strand 3

Supervision in the modern world