Frequently Asked Questions

The answers here aim to add transparency to your overall coaching supervision experience as well as lay important groundwork for your sessions with me, Lora McInturf of The Inner Advocate®.

Why consider supervision with The Inner Advocate®?

First, a question that I frequently ask anyone who wants to work with me (in any capacity). Why do you want to work with me? What do you believe I have to offer that you do not already have? I have heard many different ideas over the years, some of which I can fulfill and others I cannot. Surfacing your expectations and discussing them together gives us a very solid starting point for your supervision experience. The strength of the relationship we develop together can be one of the most important drivers of the development you are looking to make for yourself and in your coaching practice.

What is the purpose of coaching supervision?

Supervision is, at its essence, learning about yourself as a coaching instrument and looking at ways to make your coaching work more effective. Peter Hawkins and Aisling McMahon tailored a model for the coaching profession that helps us to get a clearer picture of how supervision can support you and your work as a coach.(1)

I like to put their model into a metaphor of three pillars of supervision that can support your coaching. The three pillars are D for developmental, R for resourcing, and Q for qualitative.

The Developmental pillar is about your development as a coach. We explore your work with your clients, dissect the dynamics of your coach-client relationships, look at the interventions you use, and consider other ways of working with your clients. We can also look at your personal and professional development and how it all fits together with your bigger aspirations.

The Resourcing pillar is about looking at how we are affected as human beings in our work with other human beings. To sustain our practices as coaches, we need to become aware if and when our work is affecting us in unhelpful ways. Examples include absorbing a client’s emotions, being affected by their circumstances, or our own emotions being re-stimulated by the client. When we do not pay attention to these aspects, then we can become less effective, for example, by being at risk of over-identifying with our clients or even avoiding or becoming defensive with them.

The Qualitative pillar is about the quality of the work we do with our coaching clients. We need other professionals to look at the work we do because we are human beings with blind spots and vulnerabilities created throughout our lives. No amount of training or experience can absolve any one of us of this reality. It will come as no surprise then that this pillar also includes the topic of ethics. The purpose here is to keep us honest and courageous in our work.

What are our different roles in coaching supervision?

Your job as the client is to figure what you want to focus on in your coaching practice.

Akin to coaching, what you get out of the supervision experience largely depends on your willingness to:

  • regularly attend supervision sessions;

  • come to supervision sessions prepared to discuss material that you deem important about your clients or yourself alongside your coaching practice;

  • go deep inside yourself during supervision sessions; and

  • reflect on your coaching practice between supervision sessions.

For some coaches, putting the time and energy into regular supervision is the most challenging part (hence, why many coaches do not do this if they are not required!). We are all living busy lives with many competing demands in our coaching practices as well as in our private lives. If you want to continue to grow as a coaching professional, then choosing our work necessarily becomes a priority. In fact, for some people, the resistance to prioritizing oneself as a person alongside the work of coaching can become the focus of supervision.

My job as the supervisor is to be your equal thinking partner and support you as you reflect on different aspects about yourself alongside your coaching practice. My main role is to hold the process for you (while you bring the content that is the focus of our work). My approach to supervision is detailed more here.

What are some of the benefits you have experienced through supervision and can I expect the same benefits?

Over the years, I have worked with more than a dozen coaching supervisors. Many of the experiences have been profound and, yes, I believe that you can experience something similar while working with me.

Some of the main benefits that I have experienced from coaching supervision so far include:

  • The quality of my coaching continues to improve as supervision challenges and supports me to regularly look at and evolve my coaching skills and capabilities.

  • Supervision has been a reliable resource for me so that I can sustain myself to be present and consistent in the work of coaching, which can be intense and emotionally draining at times.

  • Where I have felt stuck in the work, supervision has given me the opportunity to see the issues I encounter in new ways by stepping back for a meta-view as well as by looking deeply into specific client work.

  • When possible ethical issues have come up, I know I have a non-judgmental sounding board to openly discuss how to handle the situation in a way that feels ethical and aligned with my values as a coach and as a person.

  • I continue to mature more deeply and quickly as a coach because I proactively and regularly slow down to face challenges and uncover blindspots in my coaching work.

  • I have regular access to another experienced coaching perspective that I can choose to access and apply to specific coaching contexts.

  • I rarely ever worry about my coaching work at night, on the weekends, or over the holidays, because I know I always have the independent, confidential place of supervision to go to discuss what’s on my mind with a trained and experienced colleague.

  • My inner supervisor abilities to self-reflect, both before, during, and after coaching sessions continue to grow and deepen my work as a coach. In particular, I credit supervision with supporting me to develop a regular journaling practice that I resisted for the first four decades of my life.

  • I have expanded my creative abilities in the coaching work (as well as in my private life) in ways I never imagined possible including through painting, music, creative writing, design, videography, and more.

  • My overall development as a human being has been deeper and more expansive than I could have ever done on my own or through additional trainings.

Coaching supervision not only benefits us as individuals and coaching practitioners. Every time we reflect on our coaching work, our clients and their outcomes benefit as well!

Outside of these immediate benefits, even our family, friends, and communities are beneficiaries of this work as we continuously notice how we are showing up in this world. “Who we are is how we…coach…partner, neighbor, parent, love…”

What is your specific approach to supervision?

Find my general approach to supervision here.

What is the format of a supervision session with The Inner Advocate®?

Coaches will notice that supervision sessions may have certain elements akin to coaching sessions. However, coaches will also notice that the supervisor may speak at greater length, can step into mentoring, and occasionally offer to explain or teach something (some coaching bodies prohibit these types of interventions in coaching). As a result, supervision can (at times) feel like more of an elevated dialogue between professional colleagues (and this is intentional).

What is the focus of a typical coaching supervision session?

The coach decides what is the focus of every session.

The core of supervision is self-reporting about and reflecting on client cases.

Supervision is also a space to, for example:

• Explore the coach’s internal process

• Develop coaching and related skills

• Review aspects of the coaching agreement (both written and psychological)

• Reflect on general themes in relation to the coaching practice, e.g. competence, capacity, and professional identity

• Consider ethical dilemmas faced by the coach

• Support the coach’s wellbeing and fitness to practice

• Take a broader perspective of one’s coaching practice


What is the typical cadence for coaching supervision?

It is suggested to evenly distribute supervision sessions across the year.

For myself, I invest in supervision a minimum of twice per month, to reflect on both my coaching and supervision practices.

What do I do between our sessions?

Action between supervision sessions could be essential to your development. Unlike in coaching, however, supervision is not intended to have an “end date” where your goal is reached and the work is deemed complete. Supervision is a “never-ending walk” through your experience as a coach. Some sessions may stretch you in different ways than other sessions and walking away with something new to think about (with no further action intended) may be the most valuable outcome. This is your supervision experience and I aim to support and challenge you in the ways you feel add the most benefit to your progress as a coach and as a person.

How open do I need to be in this work?

As thinking partners, you and I will endeavor to be as open as possible with each other - and ourselves - before, during, and after the supervision engagement. Your openness directly impacts the ultimate amount of value you receive from supervision.

Should I be taking notes? What else should I have on hand?

On your side, I suggest that you have on-hand a few things:

  • some paper and a writing instrument, plus post-it notes if possible. Sometimes the best way to generate insight or deepen learnings is to revert to physically drawing or writing “the old fashioned way” with our hands. We are all very used to typing on our electronics, me included! Yet studies show that handwriting has many positive affects on our brains (see more about that here).

  • a personal journal or dedicated document to capture your insights, commitments made, actions taken, and any other reflections across the supervision experience. This can greatly enhance your supervision experience and development as a person and coaching practitioner.

On my side, I take personal handwritten notes for my sole use during our coaching sessions to support you in reaching clarity, demonstrating progress, and providing accountability. Even when I take my eyes off of you to look at my notes, please know that I remain connected with you and fully engaged in our work together. (Please also be aware that my note-taking is not a substitute for your own responsibility to keep track of what is important to you that arises from our work. If you feel you missed something that you would like to (re)capture, then please bring it to our attention during the session or in the next session.) Outside of our sessions, I may also produce creative renderings of our work as a further way to bolster my support of your supervision experience. When our supervision relationship comes to an end, and no further engagement can be anticipated, any of my personal handwritten notes are destroyed via a paper shredder in my office.

How do I prepare my space for our work?

Both of our environments are important to the success of your supervision sessions. Our locations should be free from distractions so that we may fully focus during the sessions. This can include turning off notifications on our computers and shutting down our phones. Furthermore, I will not agree to supervise while either of us are driving, nor will I agree to have a session if other people are in the room (the presence of other people can impede our ability to speak freely as well as serve as a distraction to our attention).

Our work (and your progress) directly correlates with the quality of attention you bring to our conversations. Being in a relaxed mental and physical state is essential. If you arrive to our sessions directly from another meeting or in an otherwise “harried” condition, then it will take some time to shift and “arrive” to our work (this is not uncommon, by the way). If you can take up to five minutes - before our meeting - to let go of what you were just working on or who you were with (a few moments of meditation, if you like), then this will make our conversations far more productive. If you do not have the time to do that, then I will offer that we take that time at the beginning of our session. A few moments of deep breathing, grounding, and/or centering can have a profound impact on the depth and quality of our supervision conversations.

How does feedback play a role in our work?

I regularly seek feedback about how our supervision work is progressing from your perspective. I encourage an open dialogue about what is working (or not working) for you. This is an intentional aspect of our work, as supervision is also a learning opportunity for you to practice giving/receiving feedback, saying difficult things, owning your truth, and more. By approaching our conversations with courage, both of us can increase the meaningful impact of supervision on what you are trying to achieve through your coaching work.

How could you ever understand all the things that are important to me as a person, such as my culture, race, economic background, sexual orientation, disability, etc.?

I approach all of my work by embracing the fact that every single one of us has a unique life narrative - you, the people in your life, and me as well. Parts of your life narrative may become the focus of our work, depending on what you feel may be getting in the way of your progress as a coaching professional. Whatever information you share, my intention as your supervisor (as a human being in general!) is to be:

  • open

  • non-judgmental

  • inclusive

  • safe

  • trustworthy

If I ever say or do something that does not feel right to you in any way, then please bring it to my attention so that it can be cleared up right away. The quality of our relationship is critical to the success of your supervision experience.

If we are not in the same time zone, will it be difficult for us to meet?

This is unlikely to be an issue, as The Inner Advocate® works with clients across all the time zones of the world Monday through Saturday. If you feel uncertain that there will be hours to suit your needs, then please send Lora an email directly: lora.mcinturf@outlook.com.

What “credit” could I receive from the big coaching bodies for investing in coaching supervision?

For the EMCC: Experienced practitioners are required to have a minimum of 4 hours of individual supervision per year, even distributed crossed 12 months. In the case that a practitioner is carrying out more than one form of work that requires supervision, then the minimum hours of supervision required per year increases from 4 to 8 (distributed evenly across twelve months).(2)

For the AOC: Depending on the level of accreditation, a professional coach is required to have a minimum of 3 or 6 supervision hours per year.(3)

For the ICF: ICF Credential-holders may submit up to 10 hours of Coaching Supervision (delivering or receiving) as core competency Continuing Coach Education (CCE) units toward their credential renewal.(4)

Can I ask you a question that isn’t listed here?

Absolutely! This page lists the most frequent topics and questions that clients have raised in the past. If you have another question in mind, then please reach out.

Bibliography

(1) Hawkins, P. and McMahon, A. (2020) Supervision in the Helping Professions, London: Open University Press, 69-72.

(2) EMCC website: https://www.emccglobal.org/leadership-development/supervision/

(4) AOC website: https://www.associationforcoaching.com

(5) ICF website: https://coachingfederation.org/credentials-and-standards/coaching-supervision