What is the issue if my supervisor is my line manager? Why do I need access to independent consultation?
When a manager also acts as supervisor to an employee, the supervision and management boundaries can become blurred and lead to a power imbalance. For example, a manager who wishes to achieve greater throughput of clients may be tempted, if also acting as supervisor, to encourage short-term contracts, even if this is not in the interest of a particular client and contrary to the opinion of the supervisee. Similarly it may be difficult to discuss major mistakes on the part of the supervisee if there is a threat that this might affect career progression. • The Ethical Framework (clause 26) makes it clear that there is a general obligation for all counsellors, psychotherapists, supervisors and trainers to receive supervision/consultative support independently of all managerial relationships. If there is an unavoidable overlap of supervision and management roles, a supervisee should have access to independent consultative support. • For further information on this subject, refer to BACP In
