What a Spiritual Director Brings to Supervision Sessions
Every spiritual director should participate in individual or group supervision sessions. For the new director, these can be monthly sessions. For the more seasoned director, quarterly or a minimum of twice a year may do. It is advised that the new director, as well as those seeing more than five directees a month, do individual supervision. This allows for more intentional time addressing your specific topics and needs. For other directors, group supervision allows more time to interact with other directors on a variety of topics they bring to the session. In group supervision it is common that only two or three directors share per meeting.
Supervision serves a couple specific purposes. In general, “the focus should be on the on-going growth of the spiritual director in themselves and in the practice of spiritual direction.”[1] More specifically, supervision contributes to the areas of education, consultation, and self-reflection.[2] The time you spend on these three areas will vary as the director develops more experience. It is natural that the new director would spend more time on the education aspect of supervision as they are starting out and have numerous questions concerning technique and the practice of direction. The supervisor will assist in answering these questions according to the personality, giftedness, and goals of the director. In this way the supervisor will “help the director perform more wisely and skillfully in the direction relationship.”[3] At the same time, the supervisor will encourage reflective questions about the interior thoughts and movements the director experiences within their sessions with directees.
As a director becomes more comfortable with their own style and practice of direction, less time will be spent on gaining information, developing skills, or general instruction. More time will be spent on self-reflection, especially as it relates to what is going on interiorly in the director during a session. This self-reflection “provides a way in which the director can uncover and prayerfully explore personality traits or issues that might interfere with direction, as well as moments of grace.”[4] Maureen Conroy explains, “The overall goal of supervision is to help spiritual directors to grow in self-awareness and interior freedom in order to stay with the directee’s experiences and to be attentive to God during direction sessions.”[5]
In this way, supervision “Assist(s) in recognizing and identifying unsurfaced assumptions, biases, and fears. This is best done by revealing your own assumptions, fears, and biases to others.”[6] This is why it is vital to be transparent and vulnerable in supervision. The goal is not to impress the supervisor with your ability as a director, but to bring to the session what might be hindering you as a director. This is a discernment process. James Neafey writes, “Discernment is usually defined as the process of distinguishing or sifting through interior movements to discover whether their origin is from God or some other source, such as one’s own ego, cultural conditioning, or a spirit of evil.[7]
We need to understand our biases and assumptions so they do not get in the way. Do we have favorite images of God? Do we cling to beliefs that might preclude embracing another person’s belief system? Knowing our assumptions and understanding our prejudices allow us to use them on behalf of supervisees or let go of them so that they will not get in the way.[8]
Certain types of responses or feelings can signal that more exploration is warranted:[9]
• I become bored with the conversation.
• I am overly moved to tears or feel no emotion whatsoever.
• I become angry or anxious at what the directee is telling me.
• I feel sexually aroused.
• I notice I’m very sleepy or unable to stay attentive to the conversation.
• I am reminded of an experience that I find difficult to bracket.
• I notice a great joy that I want to celebrate.
• I have a particularly strong bodily reaction to something said.
• I want to savor something said much longer than the directee does.
• I become overly involved with my directee’s life and story.
• I feel a strong urge to “parent” or give advice.
Supervision is the place “to explore your belief systems, assumptions, and prejudices, and to discern what is right for you and helpful for your directees.”[10]
In Conclusion, Supervision…
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Explores where God was in the direction session.
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Improves your ability to concentrate on the movements happening within the directee.
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Helps us uncover issues that hinder direction.
And this self-revelation isn’t always comfortable.[11]
[1] Lucy Abbott Tucker, “Spiritual Direction Supervision.”
[2] Ibid.
[3] James Neafsey, in “Supervision of Spiritual Directors” Ed., Bumpus & Langer.
[4] Ellen Tomaszewski, “Group Supervision Method and Practice.”
[5] Maureen Conroy, “Looking into the Well.”
[6] Tomaszewski.
[7] Neafsey.
[8] Neafsey.
[9] Rebecca Bradburn Langer, “Supervision of Spiritual Directors.”
[10] Ibid.
[11] Tomazowski.