Supervision
“Self care is a moral imperative.” – Brian Thorne
I offer Supervision to Humanistic and Integrative Therapists as well as Lifespan Integration Therapists. I qualified as a Supervisor in 2010 and it is now over 50% of my practice.
I really value the supervisor / Supervisee relationship and aspire to create a space where you can trust me with the whole range of your work, from whats going well to what might be termed your leaning edge. You are paying me for supervision and I want to empower you to get what you need from your time with me., I will likely bring educative elements in where appropriate to assist your client work, this said, I do not place myself in the expert role ,which means we can both get our hands dirty and explore any areas that you choose to bring, together.
Because your clients are not my clients, I can easier zoom out, “Super – Vision,” and often see things from a helpful perspective that can get missed when one is in the room with the intensity and transference of client work. I can offer what I notice in the spirit of, take it if its helpful and let it go if its not!
Like anything else supervision can become habitual and lose the creative edge. I wish to provide a safe, inspiring, creative, yet challenging and professional space for you to explore your therapy work. I offer an environment where we can both be honest and keep this a valuable, nurturing, robust environment for reflective and reflexive practice.
Benefits Of Supervision
To encourage high quality therapy to provide value to clients.
To help supervisees have a better (more integrated) sense of the therapeutic process.
To help supervisees develop principles of best ethical professional practice.
To help supervisees grow in professional confidence.
To help supervisees explore alternative ways to understand particular client issues.
To help supervisees develop their own unique therapeutic style.
It should be collegial and include the elements of: normative (whats happening), formative (educative) and restorative (self care).
To protect clients.
Related Supervision Articles
My Experience
I offer private supervision to qualified therapists, trainees and health care professionals. I also offer consultancy to agencies working from trauma informed models.
I have experience of providing Clinical Supervision and/or team support to Counsellors and Volunteers at agencies meeting the needs of the following clients in Brighton and Hove:
Survivors Network
Providing services that supports survivors of childhood abuse and sexual violence.
Mankind
Supporting male survivors of sexual abuse.
LGBT Switchboard
Listening to, informing and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Brighton/Hove and beyond.
As You Are
Providing affordable counselling and group work for depression, stress and anxiety.
Rise
Helping people affected by domestic abuse. Practical solutions, shelter and support in Brighton, Hove and Sussex.
Impetus
Improving the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable adults in Brighton and Hove.
YMCA
Providing homes for homeless people
Standing Together
Working with communities to bring together all the different local agencies that play a part in tackling Domestic Violence, from prevention to prosecution and beyond
Get In Touch
£100 for £60 minute sessions
What My Clients Say
I have found Vajralila to be extremely supportive, robust, wise and reflective in my group supervision with her. I have always felt completely comfortable reflecting on my practice with her; those things that I feel I have handled well as well as those which I am uncertain about. Vajralila is strong on ethics and boundaries as well as being able to see past them and always has the client’s best interests at heart at the same time as being able to see my perspective as counsellor. She is natural, easy to relate to and with and has enabled me to develop hugely as a counsellor. – E
Vajralila provided an extremely safe and supportive space in which I felt able to take risks, express vulnerability and be open to challenge. Her supervision was invaluable. Beginning my journey as a counsellor with her alongside me was a nurturing and potent experience.
She has a way of making me feel that I can trust her, that she has my interests at heart and that she will ensure that I gain from any meeting with her. She enriches any experience I am lucky enough to have with her, and somehow manages to see when I hesitate or am unsure and helps me to work through whatever it may be. I feel safe with her, and although exposed at times, it was in a way that made me learn and move forward. Her style always provides the means to reach in and find what is needed and address it in a calm and reassuring way without any judgement. Whatever I may be feeling, I always come away more at peace, issues put to bed and that i have learnt something. – C
I have very much valued having Vajralila as my Supervisor. Through her Integrative way of working and supportive feedback, it has enabled me to find my own strengths as a counsellor and has helped me to be myself in the process. Vajralila’s ongoing encouragement, empathy and wisdom has also allowed me to grow professionally by teaching me to work on a deeper and more spiritual level therapeutically. This has now become part of who I am as a therapist and I will always be grateful, as I could not have achieved it without her knowledge and experience, which I thank her for. – S
I think Vajralila’s great strength is the ability to embrace different perspectives, and to see the potential for truth and learning in each person’s own experience. She has the natural compassion to support and encourage, and can also use her own enquiry and experience to challenge when it is appropriate. – T
As a group supervisor, Vajralila does really well to encourage a positive group dynamic. She draws on a variety of different humanistic frameworks and on her own experiences, but I was particularly pleased by how she brings in a spiritual dimension to the work. As I also have an interest in Buddhism, she really helped me to integrate this into my counselling work. – N
Vajralila has been my Supervisor for over 2.5 years throughout my counselling placement. She is a calm and reliable influence and has been very supportive and available during particularly tricky episodes whilst I was a student. Her manner is empathic; listening keenly to the silences, or rather to the veiled thoughts and emotions perhaps unexpressed. i.e. highlighting our potential blind spots. Gently encouraging, she manages to be challenging within safe ethical boundaries, always holding the space well and maintaining excellent group facilitation. I admire that she ensures everyone is heard and is allocated equal time and space.
She draws on traditional and new teachings from her personal and professional world, encouraging others to participate and debate- thus developing our confidence, experiential learning, active input and insight. I am especially drawn to her knowledge, experience and wisdom as a practicing Buddhist since it is a spiritual philosophy and way of life that resonates with me existentially that I feel mirrors the humanistic therapeutic approach/ethos. It has been both a pleasure and privilege to work with her. Thank you. – S
As a counselling student, I was excited yet apprehensive to start my first placement. When I met Vajralila to talk about supervision, I knew straight away that her calm, clear and friendly approach was exactly what I wanted. Vajralila’s humanistic approach to building the supervisory relationship was so helpful to me because I felt able to share my feelings, experiences and concerns which really assisted my learning and reflection as a new counsellor.
For me, our relationship was full of realness, exploration and discovery. Her depth of knowledge was invaluable to my learning and I am so glad for the time we have worked together. Vajralila’s creative and humanistic perspective really enlightened me to how I reflect on my process in the therapeutic relationship and in my everyday life. I recommend Vajralila as an excellent supervisor. – C
Vajralila has supervised me on and off for several years and I am always drawn back to working with her. She is kind, dynamic, honest and checks in with me and follows my needs always. Vajralila has shared her wisdom, experiences and genuine care without fail. Her presence offers a grounding and safety that in my experience is rare and I would recommend her as a supervisor and therapist to anyone that enquired. – L
As my supervisor for nearly three years, Vajralila has supported my journey from trainee counsellor to qualified private practitioner. Her relaxed warm manner and the wealth of knowledge and experience she brings to the role, has allowed me to venture forth and explore my growing edge as a Humanistic Counsellor within the BACP ethical guidelines. This collegial relationship continues to feed me with both practical and emotional sustenance. – J
As a LGBT-identified counsellor it was important to me that I received input from a supervisor who could support me effectively and understand both my perspective as a LGBT counsellor and the perspective of my LGBT clients. Vajralila was able to step into the world of my clients with helpful insight using her personal experience, knowledge of LGBT culture and her depth of training in this area, including very valuable understanding of the trans-identified community. My LBGT clients are often helped by the fact that their sexuality is not something that needs to be explained, and this was one of the things that I appreciated about Vajralila as a supervisor. – S
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed working with you and how you’re wise, insightful and gently challenging supervision helped me develop as a counsellor.
Vajralila is a Supervisor I trust. Whilst I have benefitted from supervision from other professionals, it is Vajralila who I have found to be the most consistent in her approach, the most reliable in her guidance and the most encouraging in her desire for me to find my own strengths as a counsellor. I believe I have learned more about what it is to be a counsellor in my four years with Vajralila than I have in all my other training combined. Her skill in integrating the other counsellors in group supervision whilst maintaining the highest standards is a real attribute. Above all, I think the thing I most value about Vajralila are her strong ethical boundaries. I have learnt about the difficulties and the robustness needed to hold these boundaries, and how important they are to the counselling relationship. I think this sums Vajralila up; she acknowledges the challenges, the feelings, the dilemmas I face, and then works with me to find a way through to help me as a counsellor and my clients on their journey to well-being. My whole-being is satisfied by this approach, and my work with my clients reflects this. – H
I have previously mentioned to Vajralila that she gave me the gift of time, this has become a valuable understanding in my work, knowing it has to be at the client’s pace, but something I have only been able to reflect on with hindsight. I feel as though I have been offered the space to grow in my work, from a counsellor in training, continuing through to being a counsellor in private practice. As Windy Dryden (1991) so eloquently put it, Vajralila has offered me the space to grow in my work, being able to learn from mistakes made whilst being in a safe and containing environment. Some of my experiences have been painful to get through but nonetheless valuable, and through facing these full-on, we had been able to move into a more collegial space in our later work. I know this support has been enabling for me to become more congruent in my client work and in support of their process.
Thank you for being such a wise and empathic supervisor during our years working together. You tuned into my way of working, allowing me to be truly open and honest and I was given the space, and acceptance to explore my work on a deep level. Thanks to your support, I believe I have learnt such a lot and grown as a counsellor during this time. – L
As a humanistic Person Centred therapist and supervisor, I find that Vajralila is considerate and respectful to our individual needs, allowing us to be ‘comfortably’ vulnerable when necessary and to explore our client therapeutic relationship and to face our inner daemons or resistance with open eyes. I feel relaxed and able to be honest and open, which can engender fun, free, spontaneous humor and warmth too, as I sense she honours our uniqueness. She is an advocate of pure authenticity and I never feel judged. She has a kind, inquisitive, humble and gentle presence, creating safe, clearly defined boundaries.
Vajralila supervised my practice throughout my time as a trainee counsellor and has supported my development towards private practice. I have experienced her as wonderfully encouraging, deeply empathic and incredibly supportive of my path towards becoming the therapist I am (and will continue to become).
I greatly value how she organically adapted to my changing supervision needs as my confidence grew and my nerves calmed down. Early on I remember her guidance and encouragement being central to my sense of safety when starting with clients. Increasingly as I settled into the work, she became both affirming and gently challenging, thereby helping me grow my awareness. I never had the sense that she wanted me to work her way, but only that she supported me in finding my own ethical and effective way of being present with clients. Nevertheless, there are many nuggets or Vajralila’s wisdom that have become integral to my way of working – especially the idea of turning towards any “negative” feelings and thoughts and of stroking the defense. Ultimately she has always pointed me back to empathy and staying close to the client’s experience – , both by modeling it and by inviting me to ask questions like “how is this person keeping themselves safe with these choices or behaviors?”
I feel deeply grateful to have met and worked with Vajralila at this point in my career as she has helped me lay some valuable foundation blocks which I can trust to keep me and my clients safe as we embark on some very courageous work. – J
You have been a huge presence, influence, educator, empowered inspiration and so much more. You and your way of being regularly inform me and keep me grounded. You have been a huge part of my process and my journey in finding me. You have helped me see the world in a way that it is nowhere near as scary as I imagined. My beliefs, congruence, transparency, confidence and self esteem and empathy have grown enormously and I express nothing but gratitude for you, your part in my journey and the dynamic relationship we share.