The Inner Supervisor

This morning, as I was cycling down Askham hill before breakfast, an Airedale terrier ran out of a garden, and under my front wheel and I came off with a bump. (I should say immediately, the dog was uninjured).

I lay in the road for a minute, realising I was relatively unhurt, though my shoulder was sore. The dog's owner was very concerned and kind. I got up and sat by the roadside, and snapped my dislocated shoulder back into place, and felt a lot better.

After a bit, I cycled on to the paper shop to collect the paper, as is my daily routine, and then home.

And then, of course, I felt very flakey.

I had a call booked a little later with someone I don't yet know, about my possibly supervising her coaching practice.  And (and this is the important bit) I decided to postpone it, as I realised that I was not in the right state to conduct it well, suffering somewhat from some pain and delayed shock.

Yet it was so tempting to go on with it, not least as it would have provided a distraction from the pain. But clearly that would have been the wrong reason to do so. Likewise my pride was suggesting I just keep going: I can soldier on etc.  And I dislike letting people down, and pride myself (that word again) on never taking time off sick, and so on.

But it was clearly my sense of the Inner Supervisor that helped me to make the correct decision. Once I articulated that to myself, I asked myself a) what would I say to someone I was supervising in such a case? and b) what would my supervisor say to me? These questions made the correct decision really clear.

Which underlines the importance and value of supervision: even without consulting my supervisor, my decision-making was better informed due to my regular supervision, and that development of the Inner Supervisor that is one of the goals of good supervision.