The Zest of Superviszen

So at some stage between being very small, not thinking about such things, and being still small in stature but more advanced in years, I realise that I held some expectation at arriving at a place of ‘growing up’ or as I thought about it ‘being sorted’, ‘having things handled’.

Today it was a privilege and a delight to be invited into conversation with Claire Genkai Breeze and Brenda Rout about the experiment we have been involved in called ’Superviszen’ for attendees of the CSA Spring Conference. In this experiment Claire offers a group of flawed but willing coaches a zesty combination of Zen and Supervision.

Our conversation and the reflections from the wider group have provoked more reflections from me, some memories, some thoughts and some intentions. 

Today’s conversation reminded of the end of the formal part of my coach training with Barefoot Coaching and the realisation that I had then: that if I ever thought I had it handled, had arrived or had developed some certainty about what I was doing as a coach - then life, a person, a client would send me some inconvenient message to challenge that! Or even more likely one of my children. My eldest illustrated this to me perfectly when she was little, and I remember it vividly. As I watched another parent talking really harshly to their child, and I stood in unconscious smugness about how well I was interacting with mine, my daughter slapped me round the face a propos of nothing. It certainly awoke me from my smugness and caused me to laugh at myself. 

There is something in that experience of my interpretation of what we are doing in Superviszen, an invitation to move away from certainty towards curiosity. To laugh in the absurdity of that certainty. It is both liberating and bewildering. And as I go into training as a Supervisor in the Autumn I fully intend to bring a large sprinkling of that zest with me.