Zooming on and what I have learned

Back, probably not as many years ago as I would like to think it was, I was one of those people who did not believe work could be done online.  Social work, supervision, anything that involved people work, couldn’t happen over a computer.  We needed to be in the room with each other, seeing body language, watching subtlety, and engaging together.  I have to admit I was even dismissive of those who would say, “what if we live rurally?”, “what if you cannot access the services easily in person?”, “what if it is too far and expensive and time consuming to travel for good supervision or any other service?”.  When supervision articles began to emerge from rural Australia I may have conceded that perhaps supervision could work online, in some specific circumstances.  How magnanimous of me!

Then I began to get requests from people whom I had worked with in supervision (in person) who had moved away to another district, asking if they could continue to work with me in supervision and so I tentatively began to work in supervision online.  So now I was willing to accept that with an already established working alliance from working in the room with each other that maybe working together online could be possible.

And then Covid-19 hit. 

And the world went on ‘holiday’, into PPE, OR online!

SO my supervision online practice kicked into full gear in 2020 and hasn’t really looked back.  I have written in previous blogs about this change to working online (such as this one back in 2021, (https://theprojectteam.co.nz/2021/10/20/ive-been-thinking-lets-talk/) and my noticing of the difference between kanohi ki te kanohi and ‘wairua ki te wairua’.  I still do prefer meeting in person in supervision, and yet despite this, in 2025 my supervision practice is probably close to 50% online.   So as I have embraced this online, not ‘in person space’ what have I notice and what am I learning?

• It is easy for online supervision to be a quicker and speedier process and to feel more transactional and less relational online, so I need to take more pauses and time to breath and slow things down and remain ‘present’;
• It is also okay to accept that sometimes less time is needed for supervision when it is online;
• It is harder to observe the nuance of the full body conversation online, so sometimes this needs to be talked about more overtly and sometimes this just needs acceptance that it is what it is;
• Supervision online is almost a different piece of work that supervision in person, again acceptance is needed here;
• That attention to process helps, karakia, overt check in, clear agenda setting and obvious review and finishing assists the online process almost more than when in the room together;
• Online supervision still feels like it is working harder.  The wairua, vibe, nuance of being in the same time and SPACE with each other aids, clarifies, and does some of the work for us when we meet in person.  Without this, when online I need to work ‘harder’, or maybe it is ‘smarter’ as a supervisor to hear, notice and respond;
• Strong emotions are harder to deal with when not in person (is that an age thing for me, I wonder?).  There is nothing worse than not being able to offer a box of tissues when the need is present, although this is when one must rely on the resource of your supervisee.  This discomfort is likely all my own but again, reading emotion is more than words or tears.

As I continue to grow a practice which is increasingly online I am a little bemused by this clear change in my approach and attitude towards working online, and I guess we must all move with the times and learn with the changes.

I wonder what have your experiences been of working online in supervision or in general practice with whānau and clients?  I’d love to hear what you are learning and growing in your practice.

Ngā mihi

Karen