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Pastoral Supervision: an annotated bibliography This annotated bibliography was compiled from bibliographies sent in by members of the consultation on pastoral supervision held in Edinburgh in February 2008. Material which speaks directly of how to ‘do’ pastoral supervision is quite scarce, particularly material which arises from the UK context. Although theological visions of pastoral supervision are beginning to be articulated, e.g. by Frankie Ward [British] and Kenneth Pohly [American], most of the techniques advocated are drawn from secular supervision models. The notable exception in this respect is ‘verbatim’ which arose from the clinical pastoral supervision movement located originally within psychiatric hospitals in the USA. Charles Gerkin’s [Canadian] hermeneutical work arises from this movement, seeking to encourage the integration of the care seeker’s story, the care giver’s story and the Christian story, within supervision. Increasingly, therefore, theological reflection is being understood as a tool for supervision and so three models of structured theological reflection are included here. The supervision of spiritual directors is more developed than that of general pastoral ministry and some of the emphases in that literature will be in helpful dialogue with the perspectives behind secular models. It is notable that key writers on supervision are now writing from more spiritual perspectives than they did originally, [Michael Carroll, Robin Shohet] and are more prepared to be explicit about their own faith commitments. The material is divided into 5 categories
1. The nature of pastoral supervision Frances Ward, Lifelong Learning: Theological Education and Supervision, London: SCM Press 2005 Frances Ward writes as a theological educator and supervisor of pastoral ministry. She aims to avoid the ‘being watched’ connotations of supervision understood as sight or oversight [particularly in the theological tradition] and develops instead a model of supervision as space to play. She develops this through Winnicott’s work on creating safe enough spaces for play being essential to the growth and learning of children, in which the supervisor becomes both container and playmate. Drawing on the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Julia Kristeva to emphasise the importance of difference and the stranger within, Ward stresses the need for the supervisor to be authentically themselves and yet encourage the ‘otherness’ of the supervisee, so that genuine interplay is possible. This, she argues, is fundamental to all authentic ministry. Using JV Taylor’s work, she argues that it is the perichoretic dance of the Holy Spirit in the spaces within the dialogue that makes supervision a place in which God sustains learning. The latter chapters of the book contain useful introductions to key practices in supervision like verbatim, making a learning contract, the clinical rhombus etc.. but Ward’s distinctive contribution is in seeking to articulate a theology of elective supervision. Foskett J. and Lyall D. (1988) Helping the Helpers: Supervision in Pastoral Care. SPCK: London. In their ground breaking book about pastoral supervision John Foskett and David Lyall introduce a health care chaplaincy and theological education audience to a range of key tools from other supervision disciplines. The scene is set explaining the dynamics of reflective learning and then concepts from secular supervision are introduced, for example, Ekstein & Wallerstein’s clinical rhombus – the main importance of which is to alert supervisors’ attention to the need to attend not only to the development of the trainee, but to the needs of patients/clients and to the clinic/hospital or training institution within which the training is happening. Transposing this insight into the arena of training a curate, Foskett and Lyall use the rhombus to remind both the Training Incumbent and the Curate that they each have responsibilities to the Church of England [through the bishop] and responsibilities to their parishioners. Good supervision, thus, honours the whole network of such relationships. For Foskett and Lyall the distinctive feature of pastoral supervision is the theological perspective of the supervisor and the supervisee. This may also be important to the care seeker. They advocate that both pastors and supervisors of pastors need to first be present to listen to the story presented; second pay attention to the way this story interacts with their own story; third pay attention to the way in which these stories interact with the Christian story. Verbatim [derived from Boisen and Hiltner’s work] is the main tool used both to illustrate the points made in the book and is suggested as a structure for pastoral supervision sessions. Kenneth Pohly, ‘The Purpose and Function of supervision in ministry’, Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry Vol 10.1988 Kenneth Pohly, founder of the Pohly Center for Supervision and Leadership Formation in Dayton Ohio, locates pastoral supervision clearly within the ecclesial context. He discusses the relationship between pastoral supervision and ecclesial oversight, but arguing that they are not and cannot be mutually exclusive. To do this he develops a theological approach rooted in covenant: the covenant of God with the church defines its ministry, and therefore whenever supervisee and supervisor sit together, the covenant defines who they are both before God and each other. At the heart of the relationship therefore is trust and equality. Pohly identifies 7 purposes for pastoral supervision: formation of ministers; accountability and support; stability for leadership task; ensures the work of building up the saints happens; provides balance between getting tasks of ministry done and care for the minister; evaluates ministry; helps congregregations find their identity. Kenneth Pohly, ‘The Distinctiveness of Ministry Supervision’, http://www.united.edu/pohlycenter/pohly_sprvsndistinctiveness.pdf In this article Pohly argues for a practice of supervision which takes seriously the context of the church. Although there are a range of features in common with other supervision disciplines, he argues that who Christians are before God and each other gives a distinctive incarnation to pastoral supervision. He draws on the New Testament to demonstrate that supervision of ministry has always cut across any hierarchical distinctions and argues that because of the nature of the church most of those involved in supervision will always be volunteers: sometimes lay people are supervising pastors; sometimes the other way round. Pohly argues that this is not unfortunate, but foundational to supervision as a form of collegial, mutual, holistic and inclusive Christian ministry. Kenneth Pohly, Transforming the Rough Places: The Ministry of Supervision, 2nd Edition, Franklin TN: Providence House, 2001 Kenneth Pohly, Pastoral Supervision, Houston: Institute of Religion 1977 Gerkin, C.V. (1984) The Living Human Document: Re-Visioning Pastoral Counselling in a Hermeneutical Model. Abingdon Press: Nashville. Presents a hermeneutical approach to the supervision of pastoral ministry in which the supervisor is listening for the integration of three stories: the care seeker’s story; the care giver’s story [now being told to the supervisor] and the faith story [broadly understood by Gerkin to be the story of creation, sin and redemption]. For further examples of structured supervision which pays attention to the faith story see below, ‘Resources from Theological Reflection’. Thomas St James O’Connor, Clinical Pastoral Supervision and the Theology of Charles Gerkin, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion Vol 22, 1998. Len Kofler & Bill Cosgrave, ‘Pastoral Supervision: A valuable Instrument for Today’s Church’ Newsletter of the Institute of St Anselm Vol 9.1 1994 ‘Pastoral Supervision’, Uniting Church of Australia 2001http://nat.uca.org.au/resources/pdf/pastoral_supervision.pdf Jane Leach, ‘Pastoral Supervision: a review of the literature’, Contact 151 2006 Putman, W. and Schilderman, H. Pastoral Supervision Assessment. Journal of Empirical Theology: Academic Publishers: Brill. Volume 16 (2) January, 2003, 33-49. Steere, D.A. (2002) The Supervision of Pastoral Care. John Knox Press: Edinburgh.
2 Resources from theological reflection David Lyall, ‘Pastoral Action and Theological Reflection, Contact 1989 reprinted in Willows & Swinton eds., Spiritual Dimensions of Pastoral Care, London & Philadelphia: JKP 2000. Lyall takes Edward Farley’s fourfold hermeneutical approach and illustrates it by working through an example from his work in hospital chaplaincy. The four steps of the method: identifying the genres and issues; identifying the influence of the past; identifying the distortions of abstraction and particularity; identifying the structures of idolatry and redemption; form a tool for self supervision or supervision in a group in which the aim is to understand the dynamics at play in the pastoral encounter between the care seeker, the care giver and the story of faith which may be explicitly or implicitly present in the encounter presented. Michael Northcott, ‘The Case Study Method in Theological Education’ [1990] reprinted in Willows & Swinton eds., Spiritual Dimensions of Pastoral Care, London & Philadelphia: JKP 2000. Northcott offers a structured method of supervision which focuses upon the committed action of the care giver. He describes a group [within the theological education setting] in which participants take turns to present case study material in written form, distilling the important information about a situation or encounter and identifying their own aims within it. The presenter remains quiet during the analysis and evaluation of their work. In the feedback, the presenter speaks about what they have learned; how they would now evaluate their aims and their practice, and principles of good practice are elucidated. Jane Leach, ‘Pastoral Theology as Attention’ 2006 Contact 153. Leach outlines a five step approach to supervision understood as spiritual discernment, in which student ministers are invited to listen to the Holy Spirit as they reflect on a collaborative piece of work, by being attentive to: first, the voices heard, silenced and silent within the situation; the wider issues implicit in the situation; their own internal dialogue and feelings; the Christian tradition including scripture; and finally the mission of the church as they seek to find their own way forward with the issues or in the situation under discussion. She encourages the use of students’ own live material, such that theological reflection is learned within the context of and experienced as supervision.
3 Resources from counselling supervision Hawkins & Shohet, Supervision in the Helping Professions. Third Edition. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2006 In this seminal work Hawkins & Shohet introduce a six step process model of supervision. Modes 1-3 focus on the ‘then and there’ of the counselling undertaken by the counsellor, i.e. the counsellor’s re-telling of what happened in the pastoral encounter. First, in diagnosis mode the supervisor aims to help the counsellor pay attention to the person they accompany, to better understand the choices they make and the relatedness of different areas of their life; second, in focusing on the counsellor’s interventions, the supervisor aims to increase the counsellor’s range of pastoral skills; third, in focusing on the processes of the counsellor’s work, the supervisor aims to deepen their insight into what is happening in their work, e.g. spotting transferences onto the counsellor [or vice versa], looking at long term patterns. Modes 4-6 focus on the ‘here and now’ of the supervision session. In mode 4 the supervisor concentrates on identifying what the practitioner is carrying both consciously and unconsciously; in mode 5 the supervisor focuses on the here and now as mirroring the then and there process [parallel processes] e.g. you seem angry with me today and that’s unusual; does this anger belong to you or to your client perhaps? ; in mode 6 the supervisor focuses on how the ‘client’ impacts the supervisor e.g. I don’t like your client and I wonder whether you don’t… Lynette Hughes and Paul Pengelly, Staff Supervision in a Turbulent Environment: managing process and task in front-line services, London & Philadelphia: JKP 1997. Writing mainly from a psychotherapeutic perspective in the context of supervision within the public sector, the book focuses on the interaction between supervisor and supervisee within a line-management structure. The tasks of supervision are seen as managing service delivery; focusing on the practitioner’s work and facilitating the practitioner’s professional development. Clear explanations are given of key tools for assessing and developing professional competence, calling a halt to supervision when it needs to end, working with counter-transference and avoiding a variety of defensive scripts and projections. The aim of supervision is presented as offering challenge and containment [Bion] rather than either persecution or collusive support. Francesca Inskipp & Brigid Proctor, Making the Most of Supervision Part 1 (2nd ed The Art craft and tasks of counselling supervision), 1993, reprinted 1995. They describe supervision as ‘a working alliance between a supervisor and a counsellor in which the counsellor can offer an account of her work; reflect on it; receive feedback, and where appropriate, guidance’, in order ‘to enable the counsellor to gain in ethical competence; confidence; and creativity, so as to give her best to her clients.’ They introduce the key tasks of supervision under three headings: normative [deals with managerial issues; quality control; issues of competency; policies and procedures; codes of ethics; reporting], formative [forming the supervisee’s work through guidance; teaching; skills sharing; self awareness; understanding; encouraging growth and change], and restorative [support; encouragement; feedback; provides opportunity for discharging feelings; recharging energies; ideas and creative play]. Francesca Inskipp & Brigid Proctor, Making the Most of Supervision Part 1 (2nd ed The Art craft and tasks of counselling supervision), 1993, reprinted 1995. They describe supervision as ‘a working alliance between a supervisor and a counsellor in which the counsellor can offer an account of her work; reflect on it; receive feedback, and where appropriate, guidance’, in order ‘to enable the counsellor to gain in ethical competence; confidence; and creativity, so as to give her best to her clients.’ They introduce the key tasks of supervision under three headings: normative [deals with managerial issues; quality control; issues of competency; policies and procedures; codes of ethics; reporting], formative [forming the supervisee’s work through guidance; teaching; skills sharing; self awareness; understanding; encouraging growth and change], and restorative [support; encouragement; feedback; provides opportunity for discharging feelings; recharging energies; ideas and creative play]. Doehrman, M.J.C. (1976) ‘Parallel process in supervision and psychotherapy’. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 40:3–104 W R Bion, Attention and Interpretation, London: Routledge 2001 Wiener, Mizen and Duckham, Supervising and Being Supervised, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2003 Estadt, B.K., Compton, J.R. and Blanchette, M.C. (2005) The Art of Clinical Supervision: A Pastoral Counseling Perspective. Wipf & Stock Publishers: Eugene Ekstein and Wallerstein, The teaching and learning of psychotherapy, New York: Basic Books 1958
4 Resources from Spiritual Direction Supervision James Neafsey in ‘Seeing Beyond: A contemplative approach to supervision’ in Bumpus & Langer, Supervision of Spiritual Directors: Engaging in Holy Mystery, Morehouse, 2005 Vest Still Listening: New Directions in Spiritual Direction, Morehouse 2000:93 Maureen Conroy, Looking into the Well: Supervision of Spiritual Directors, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1995
5 Integrative resources from a range of disciplines Michael Carroll, ‘The Spirituality of supervision’ in M Carroll and M Tholstrup eds., Integrative Approaches to Supervision, London: JKP 2001 Mooli Lahad, Creative Supervision, London & Philadelphia: JKP 2000 Robin Shohet ed., Passionate Supervision, London & Philadelphia: JKP 2008 www.jmmante=l.net A Contemplative Approach to Psychotherapy
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