Professional Practice and Ethics Archives

Crisis & Support Resources for practitioners

October 7, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Crisis & Support Resources for practitioners "Reaching out for support is not a sign of burnout; it is a sign of professional maturity. Using these resources ensures you stay healthy enough to continue the incredible work you do for our clients. There is no 'heroism' in struggling alone." Before You Need It: Prepare Your Support Plan One of the most helpful things we can do for ourselves as practitioners is to identify our support options before we need them. When we are distressed, overwhelmed, exhausted or dealing with the aftermath of a particularly difficult piece of clinical work, it can be surprisingly difficult to remember who we can contact, where to find the relevant information, or what options are available to us. Having this information prepared in advance means that we don't have to make those decisions in the middle of a difficult moment. Consider creating your own Crisis & Support Resource List and keeping it somewhere that is easy to access — for example, saved...

Trauma-Informed Clinical Competency Guide

October 6, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Here is a Trauma-Informed Clinical Competency Guide, designed to be a suggested roadmap for developing skills from being a guided learner, to an independent practitioner when working directly with trauma as a specialism. 1. Planning: The Strategy Long-Term Roadmap: Goals match the client’s specific trauma and cognitive level. Session Steps: Daily objectives are small, measurable, and lead toward the big goal. The Pivot: Knowing when to change or add something the plan if a client is struggling. Right Tools: Choosing materials (activities/worksheets) that fit the client's age and interest. Clinical Rationale: Understanding the "why" (theory) behind your choices. Maximising Action: Structuring sessions so the client is active, not just listening. Celebrating Wins: Having a clear way to show the client their progress. The Support System: Including family/partners in the healing plan where appropriate. 2. Interaction: The Relationship Sensitivity: Staying tuned in to the client’s mood and adjusting in the moment. Safe Connection: Using the therapist-client bond as a tool for healing. Therapeutic Tone: Being warm, sincere, and using humour where it helps. Professional Boundaries:...

Supervisor’s checklist for organisational wellness

October 6, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Supervision checklist for organisational wellness This Supervisor’s Organisational Wellness Checklist is designed to help those working as a leader, audit the systemic supports that are available to your team. It moves beyond "individual self-care" and ensures the employer or agency is providing a trauma informed foundation. You may find this helpful to use this quarterly to assess and advocate for team-level health. 1. Physical & Psychological Safety Safe Environment: Is the workspace (lighting, layout, exits) physically secure and welcoming for all staff and clients? Zero Tolerance: Are anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and non retaliation policies clearly posted and enforced? Privacy Spaces: Are there quiet rooms or private spaces available for staff to de-escalate or "reset" after difficult sessions? 2. Workload & Operational Support Caseload Balance: Is there a mechanism to review and adjust workloads based on case complexity and staff experience levels? Flexibility: Does the agency offer flexible scheduling or remote options to support staff wellbeing and work-life boundaries? Task Clarity: Are job roles and expectations communicated in employee-friendly language to reduce...

Vicarious Trauma and self care

October 5, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Vicarious Trauma and self care This discussion is designed to help supervisees monitor the cumulative impact of trauma work and build a sustainable personal plan to ensure you can remain prepared, aware and supported. 1: The "Temperature Check" Vicarious Trauma (VT) is a transformation in your inner experience resulting from empathetic engagement with clients' trauma material. Reflect on the past month. Have you noticed any of the following? Cognitive: Changes in how you view the world (e.g., increased cynicism, feeling the world is unsafe). Emotional: Feeling overwhelmed, "bystander guilt," or unexpected anger/sadness. Physical: Difficulty sleeping, heightened startle response, or lingering exhaustion. Behavioural: Social withdrawal or avoiding certain types of client stories. 2: Identifying "Safe Spaces" & Boundaries Healthy boundaries are the first step in being truly empathic and compassionate without losing yourself. Work/Life Transition: What is one specific "ritual" you use to leave work at work? (e.g., a specific playlist on the drive home, changing clothes immediately). The "Safe Place": Where do you feel most at ease? How often did you spend...

Making the Most of Supervision: Creating Space to Pause, Reflect and Think

October 2, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Making the Most of Supervision: Creating Space to Pause, Reflect and Think In previous blogs in this supervision series, I’ve explored what supervision is, why reflective practice matters and how supervision can support the development of competent and confident practitioners. But supervision isn't only valuable for people working within traditional clinical roles. Across charities, community organisations, public services, support services, education, healthcare and other people-facing environments, employees can find themselves working with increasingly complex situations. They may be managing conflict, responding to distress, dealing with aggression or abuse, navigating difficult conversations, working with vulnerable people or simply carrying the emotional weight of their work from one day to the next. For organisations providing this kind of support, individual reflective supervision can offer an important space for people to stop, breathe and think. What is reflective supervision? Reflective supervision provides a confidential space for an employee to step away from the immediate demands of their role and reflect on their experiences, professional practice and the impact of...

Supervision Case Template – Feedback loop

October 1, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

This Supervision Feedback Loop is designed to be the "sister document" to the Case Presentation Template discussed in my previous blog. It allows you to provide structured, objective feedback that directly correlates to the Proficiency Levels also discussed in earlier supervision blog posts. 1. Proficiency Level Assessment Based on today’s presentations and session reviews, where are we on the "Ladder of Independence"? Level 5 (Very Good): Demonstrates independent, creative mastery. Level 4 (Good): Strong initiative; ideas approved with minor refinement. Level 3 (Satisfactory): Follows direction well; beginning to problem-solve. Level 2 (Less than Sat.): Requires supervisor-initiated direction on technical skills. Level 1 (Poor): Intensive guidance needed; awareness of need to change is present. 2. The "Mirror" - Observational Feedback Strengths Observed: (e.g., "Your use of grounding during the client’s trigger was perfectly timed.") Growth Edges: e.g., "I noticed therapist talking time was high today; let's work on 'The Power of the Pause'." 3. Theory & Technique Check-in Clinical Rationale: Does the clinician understand the why behind their intervention? [ Yes / No / Developing ] Trauma-Informed Lens: Are they effectively addressing the specific trauma type and cognitive level? [ Yes / No / Developing...

Supervision Case Presentation Template

October 1, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Having a structured session presentation template can sometimes be useful to help us as Supervisees structure our time and focus in a helpful way, independently. We can usefully prepare well for supervision by investing some time in this kind of approach. To help you or your supervisee move from "asking for directions" (Level 2/3) to "presenting a plan" (Level 4/5), you may need a structured way to organise thoughts. This Case Presentation Template is designed to help bridge the gap between raw clinical data and high-level therapeutic strategic thinking. 1. The Clinical Snapshot Current Phase of Treatment: (e.g., Assessment, Stabilisation, Trauma Processing, Integration) Primary Trauma Type/Context: (Briefly describe the nature of the trauma and current impact). Last Session Goal: What were you trying to achieve in the most recent session? 2. Clinical Observations: The "Data" Explicit Processes: What did the client say or do? (Behaviours, verbal reports). Implicit Processes: What did you sense? (Body language, tone, shifts in energy, countertransference). Significant Other Involvement: Any updates regarding family/caregiver dynamics or support? 3. The "Stuck Point" or Success Where are we now? Identify a specific moment where therapy felt highly effective or where...

Supervision – A ladder of independence

September 30, 2026October 15, 2026 by Lisa HarrisNo Comments

Continuing the blog collection about Supervision, let's look more at becoming competent as a practitioner, and how to explore this in Supervision.To help us understand levels of competencies, it could be helpful to frame them as a "Ladder of Independence." Instead of seeing them as being graded or as assessments, they could more helpful be seen as a measure of how much "supervisory scaffolding" we need at our current stage of growth. It is important to normalise, we all have different strengths and growing edges, at every stage of our career. And indeed, they change over time for many reasons both professional and personal. Being open to reflect on these, ask for help or support and seek guidance, is what will help us develop most helpfully and work safely and ethically. This ladder could help us both as Supervisees, as Supervisors, or as both! Proficiency levels Let's start by looking at suggested proficiency levels. Level 5: The Independent Practitioner (Very Good) What it looks like: You are "in...