9.4 – Supervision and Peer Intervision

Supervision and peer supervision are essential practices for the continuous professional development of the Ikigai Coach. They provide spaces for reflection, support, and growth, allowing the coach to refine their stance and skills throughout their journey.

Supervision by an experienced coach is a cornerstone of professionalizing coaching. In this confidential and caring setting, the Ikigai Coach can explore their challenges, queries, and blind spots with help from an external perspective. The supervisor, with their experience and neutrality, offers an enlightening mirror and relevant avenues for reflection. They assist the coach in taking a step back in their practice, identifying their blind spots, and finding resources to surpass their limits.

For example, a coach who feels helpless in the face of a resistant client can address this situation in supervision. The supervisor will help them explore their own reactions, identify intervention paths, and strengthen their confidence in their abilities.

Supervision is also a space for emotional regulation and a source of rejuvenation for the coach. Assisting people in their hunt for Ikigai can be intense and emotionally challenging. In supervision, the coach can share their doubts, frustrations, or sorrows, and be welcomed in their vulnerability. The supervisor aids them in identifying their needs, setting their boundaries, and caring for their personal well-being. This emotional regulation is crucial to maintaining high-quality presence with clients.

For example, a coach who was deeply moved by a client’s difficult story can talk about it in supervision. The supervisor will help them accept and digest their emotions, while reinforcing their ability to remain in a helpful professional posture.

Peer supervision is another form of mutual support and enrichment. In this format, coaches with similar experience levels regularly meet to discuss their respective practices. Each person can share a difficult coaching situation and benefit from the feedback and suggestions of their peers. Collective intelligence allows expanding perspectives, discovering new approaches, and nourishing the group’s creativity.

For example, a coach wishing to propose a new Ikigai exploration tool can introduce it to their peer supervision group. Their peers can give them constructive feedback, share their own experiences, and co-create variations of the tool.

Peer supervision also encourages the sharing of resources and best practices. Coaches can exchange references of inspirational books, articles, or courses. They can share their tools, materials, and facilitation techniques. This pooling of resources enlarges the intervention repertoire of each person and stimulates innovation in coaching.

For example, a coach who successfully experimented with an Ikigai retreat format can share their experiences and facilitation tips with their peers, allowing them to draw inspiration for their own offerings.

Regular participation in supervision and peer supervision is a sign of professionalism and quality for the Ikigai Coach. It demonstrates their commitment to excellence in their practice and the respect of their clients. It’s also a way to stay humble and open by admitting that professional development is a continuous journey. By regularly feeding on these spaces of reflection and support, the coach cultivates a reflective stance and a precious adaptability.

For example, a coach who has integrated monthly supervision and bi-monthly peer supervision in their schedule can highlight it to their clients and partners as a guarantee of their professionalism and ethics.

Choosing your supervisor and peer supervision group is an important process for the Ikigai Coach. It is essential to find trustworthy individuals who share similar values and a compatible approach. The quality of the relationship and mutual adjustment are key criteria for these spaces to be fully beneficial. The coach can rely on peer recommendations, meet different supervisors, or participate in several groups before finding the right chemistry.

Practically, a coach considering supervision can propose an initial “trial” session with a supervisor, to verify their compatibility before committing to a longer-term contract.

By cultivating a regular practice of supervision and peer supervision, the Ikigai Coach demonstrates their professionalism, humility, and commitment to excellence. These spaces of reflection, support, and growth are essential to maintaining an adjusted stance, feeding creativity, and caring for their personal ecology. They allow the coach to continually refine their being and doing in service to their clients’ fulfillment.

Key points:

– Supervision by an experienced coach and peer supervision are essential practices for the continuous professional development of the Ikigai Coach.

– Supervision provides a confidential and compassionate space to explore challenges, step back, identify blind spots, and find resources. It also allows emotional regulation and rejuvenation for the coach.

– Peer supervision encourages exchanges among coaches of the same level, expansion of perspectives, discovery of new approaches, and sharing of resources and best practices.

– Regular participation in both supervision and peer supervision demonstrates professionalism, commitment to excellence, and respect for clients. It fosters a reflective stance and adaptability.

– Choosing a supervisor and a peer supervision group is an important process, based on trust, shared values, and a compatible approach.

– By cultivating these practices, the Ikigai Coach continuously refines their being and doing, in service to the fulfillment of their clients.