Help for Helpers

People in helping professions often experience an intense combination of humility, gratitude, and sheer exhaustion for the ways that the personal (emotional, spiritual, and psychological) aspects of their work is interwoven with their professional duties. For as clear and as firm as we set our boundaries, we remain humans who are affected by, and affecting of, the people with whom we work. Sometimes we encounter stories, situations, or exchanges with people that affect us deeply and we find it harder than usual to move forward, either with (or from) a particular client/colleague/case, or in the work in general.

Recognising the effects of the work on our sense of who we are, and on how we see the world, can be an important way to prevent burn out and disillusionment. It can also be hard to do this on your own. Ruthellen offers a service that can assist in the following ways:

• Processing through talking: clarifying, normalising, and articulating key issues.

• Identifying and differentiating personal responses and professional duties.

• Making space and processing personal responses.

• Utilising personal ceremony and ritual to make tangible actions towards personal resolution, separate from your professional duties in the situation.

• Follow up consultation as necessary, or referral (externally) for ongoing supervision or personal therapy if relevant.

Is this service supervision? Or is it therapy? Well, the best answer is that it is neither, but it can serve as a compliment to either, or both. We differentiate supervision from therapy not by how much (or which kinds) of personal information is shared, but by a clarity about what underlies the purpose of the exploration during the session (ie. in supervision the purpose is to support the practitioner in their professional duties, and in that, the goals of the specific case or workplace are always held in front as the context; and in therapy the aim is to treat the person, where the nature and outcomes of their professional activities are a secondary concern, if relevant at all).

This service is not supervision, because it is (primarily) a personal process. It is designed to assist with an issue arising in a professional context, but unlike clinical supervision, the focus is not on determining or justifying a course of action for the clinical case (or organisational setting). The focus is on designing a ritual that will help the practitioner to situate and honour their personal responses to that work. It should be noted, that the feeling of having ones personal responses honoured would likely be an outcome of any good supervision! But supervision is not conducted with the clinician’s personal exploration and processing as its aim. Here, assisting the practitioner’s personal process is our singular aim. In that sense, it may be better characterised as therapy that is specifically about ones work, however, it is different from psychotherapy as it is non-clinical, and not designed to assess or treat particular problems or symptoms. It is ultra discreet in focus. And in some instances may not require personal disclosure of any kind beyond the feeling responses to the case.

Sometimes the outcome might be clarification of direction in the professional situation (like supervision) and sometimes it might be insight about what the practitioner needs to explore within themselves (like therapy), or both. However, in these circumstances a referral to a different service for regular supervision or therapy would be offered.

This service is best suited to individual consultation, however you may wish to utilise the cost-saving benefit of group bookings. Individual consultations can be booked online here.

Enquire via email for group bookings.