Supervision offers the social worker space for privileged hearing. In the course of several months in parallel with his/her work he/she has the opportunity to speak, to be listened, to think in a confidential environment. The social worker alone or in a small group works in advance on a support case, or presents a case on which he/she has thought in advance in order to present it clearly. What is meant here is a problem or situation that has been experienced, or questions that have arisen during his/her professional practice. This support, written or oral, allows the social worker thanks to the reflection over the situation to look from the outside his/her emotions and affections, and to start analyzing the behaviours of the actors and their meanings.

Supervision combines elements from specialized consultation and psycho-therapy, because the interpretation of the problems is done on these two levels. This is how the right conditions are set for the realization of the social worker's own behaviour as a professional, and the associated feelings that he/she has, as well as for the realization of concrete activities for positive change. The supervision uses both ways of interpretation by modifying them according to the main goal: to improve the working situation.

The main goal of supervision is improvement of the working situation, which includes:

• improvement of the organization of work;
• improvement of the working atmosphere;
• increase of the specific competence for the respective field specialist;
• psycho-hygiene – prevention and development of the capabilities for overcoming internal „pollutions“ in the life of the helper /self-accusations, self-hurting, tension from living in a community/;
• development of the ability for joint work /collaboration/.

Main topics that are discussed during supervision:

• inability to cope with a situation of clients whose problems are not being solved;
• overloading with roles;
• the field of collaboration with clients with special problems is non-specific and with many meanings;
• due to the overloading with problems of various type, often there is a need for reflection;
• the hard-to-measure success in the profession leads to a conflict between the specialist in the helping profession and the management /between control and help/;
• problems related to the position of power in the relationship with the client, as well as the feeling of helplessness in regards to the sources of the problematic situation.

The Social Activities and Practices Institute offers methodological support and supervision to professionals in the sphere of psycho-pedagogical activities with children and parents, in the sphere of social services for children and families at risk; in the sphere of social work.

For more information: sapi@sapibg.org, 0894  412 368