On a warm afternoon, Chris, Karen and Rod (The Project Team) met together in the sun at Waikanae beach for good coffee, good food and good conversation and of course to do some planning forward and reflecting back. To say 2025 has been a year and a bit is probably an understatement. In addition to thinking about the work we do together as the Project Team our conversation also draws to the work each of us do with those we work with in supervision. As a result of reflecting on the year we thought to share with you all some of the thoughts about each of our supervision experiences this year. We have pulled together a highlight, something we learned and a challenge for ourselves looking ahead into 2026.
A highlight from our supervision conversations
Karen: It is hard to synthesise a year down into just one highlight, as I have loved the work I have been able to do this year with people. One highlight that stands out however, was listening to the feedback from one of the people I work with in supervision after they had finished 16 weeks as a fieldwork educator for a social work student. This person had sat and chewed over with me in supervision all the pros and cons of taking a student on placement and being their field educator, and had talked through all the nerves they had and their challenges of feeling ready to step into the seat of ‘educator’ when their own fieldwork placement experience did not feel that long ago. We dived into their skills, strengths, and capabilities and, low and behold, they chose to do it (with some trepidation). 16 weeks later, post the fieldwork placement it was such a joy to hear how much they had embraced, enjoyed, learned themselves and encouraged learning for their student through this experience. It was my delight to hear their delight at how well they had done in this role and how much they had to offer. Hearing them experiencing themselves with this success and articulating all the skills and tools they had used in their work, (based on their reflection and also in part on the feedback from their student and the academic institute) was 100% why I love this work.
Chris: As my esteemed colleague says it is difficult to distil the year down to one highlight. A highlight for me is being able to continue to work with a whole host of people across a range of professional disciplines and experiences. The power of the space of supervision as a place to support restoration, learning and be a mirror to the amazing work that people do is something that sustains me. Supporting people to do “hard things” in their mahi and to also support and encourage a view of what is able to be celebrated, affirmed and validated is always a highlight for me in my work. Trusting the process, trusting safety and the agreement we have with each other and trusting the work we are doing together will always be a highlight of the work I do in supervision “with” people not “to” people.
Rod: Over the past few years I’ve been working with seven youth workers in the same organisation. We alternate 1:1 supervision one month and then meet as a group the next month. The team are spread across the country, and previously there was a high turnover, burnout, and less clarity about supervision. Now they feel cohesive and grounded, despite the real challenges and emotional impacts of their very intense work. Initially I wondered how this might go as I usually try to avoid supervising multiple people in the same team. However, this arrangement has enabled issues to be resolved rapidly and it seems young people are benefitting more from stability. We review our working agreement annually and are meeting in person in February 2026. The youth workers have openly asked me to identify themes (without details) and elevate these to their manager when appropriate. I deeply appreciate the honesty, transparency and clarity.
Something we’ve learned
Rod: I’ve been reading and thinking about the accountability function of supervision more frequently this year. I wonder if the support function has dominated supervision in ways that it gets confused with counselling at the detriment of rigorous ethical reflection. I’ve read four supervision texts, and a fifth arrived in my mailbox this week for my summer reading pile. For any bookworms out there, here’s the list:
In Love With Supervision by Robin and Joan Shohet (2020)
Best Practice in Professional Supervision (2nd ed) by Allyson Davys and Liz Beddoe (2021)
Practical Supervision by Penny Henderson et al (2014)
Supervision: Praxis and Purpose by Brian Belton et al (2011)
Practical Supervision For Counsellors Who Work With Young People by Nick Luxmoore (2017)
Karen: I’ve been consciously engaging in formal learning about working with neurodiversity this year. One of the things I’ve learned in this process, is that being neuro-affirming is in many ways no different than working with every person who is different from myself. There’s no magic formula about working with neurodiversity but it does require good listening and good questions, and a real openness to understanding the world from another’s eyes. Really just another form of ‘cross cultural’ supervision engagement, and learning every day how to work with difference.
Chris: I have been consciously reading and thinking about what sustainability looks like in our work and the idea of resilience not being about the survival of the fittest but the “survival of the nurtured” (Lou Cozolino). I have focused my learning on developing skills and approaches that focus on the smallest changes that we can employ as being the most sustainable. I have spent a lot of this year refining and reflecting on how I employ this approach in my work and the value of the neuroscience and motivational interviewing literature in supporting this framework. I think in the challenging time that we find ourselves in as a society that finding ways that support well-being beyond an individual’s responsibility for their own self-care to a notion of organisational and society care for each other is even more critical as we are confronted with things that provoke moral distress and outrage.
A challenge for 2026
Chris: My challenge for next year is to try and turn down the volume on my internal critic. I am writing this as I just realise that I have booked accommodation for the 2026/27 summer holiday instead of the 2025/26 holiday! I am conscious in my life, as we head into year eight post my husband’s life changing traumatic brain injury and as we have the amazing fortune to live down the road from our grandson who is nearly 17 months, that maintaining my own sustainability is critical. I am trying to practice the “smallest thing” possible approach to change for myself and to be accountable in a kind and compassionate way regarding this. Next year is going to be another massive year particularly with regard to the issues we are having to grapple with in Aotearoa/NZ and across the world. I am sure there is going to be more moral distress to come so the challenge is to continue to look for all the incredible things which may be small but provide a counterpoint and a place to celebrate in all the hard things we find ourselves supporting ourselves and the people we work with.
Rod: Last year, Chris and Karen both inspired me to plan my whole year in advance. Since I have a full time job and my supervision practice is one day each fortnight, it’s possible I can isolate those days in advance. My challenge for 2026 is to maintain and enhance this rhythm. I found that scheduling multiple supervision appointments with people meant that fewer people fell off the wagon, because if they were sick and had to cancel, and I had no capacity to fit them in, we still had a meeting next month in the diary. I suppose continuing to balance a full time job and supervision is part of the ongoing challenge also!
Karen: My challenge going into 2026 is to ensure I rest, recharge and renew enough over the next few weeks off to have the energy to tackle whatever the year will bring. I am aware that the last two years have felt like two of the hardest of my 30+ years as a social worker, and it has been hard to hear and understand the impact that policy and funding strategies have had on the people I work with in supervision, on their organisations, and ultimately on the whānau and communities which they serve. Hearing organisations constantly having to do more with less money and less people (which let’s face it, most are used to, but it seems to have been taken to the next level lately) has been challenging, and it has been hard to hold hope. And so my challenge for 2026 is not to just have energy but to find a way to continue to hold hope and possibility, to support, encourage and drive those I work with not to just find ways to survive their work but also perhaps to challenge, rally for social justice and find ways through. So my challenge put simply is to hold HOPE (Helping Other Possibilities Emerge).
Thank you for being on this journey with us this year, whether through participating in our professional development workshops, engaging with us in supervision or following and reading our blog. We value our connection with you whatever it may be. We hope you have a moment to pause and reflect on your highlights and learning in your work for 2025 and can set your challenge for the year ahead. In the meantime we wish for you some space, some gathering with loved ones (and if you are an avid reader like Rod some reading space!) and some hope for the road ahead.
Ngā mihi nui,
Karen, Rod, and Chris
