What to expect from trauma-informed clinical supervision with Vanessa Bear

Trauma-informed clinical supervision is a steady, relational and safety-centred space that holds your wellbeing alongside your clinical work. It recognises that the emotional, physiological and relational impact of supporting others can be significant and that therapists need spaces where they can slow down, reflect and be supported without judgement. This approach is rooted in clarity, presence and collaboration and begins with the principle that safety is essential.

Safety First, Before Anything Else

Safety forms the foundation of our work together. Rothschild writes, “First and foremost, establish safety for the client within and outside the therapy” (Rothschild, 2000, p. 98). This principle guides supervision too. We begin by noticing how you are arriving, including your breath, posture, energy and capacity to think. These are gentle indicators of your internal state and help us pace the session in a way that supports your window of tolerance.

If I notice that you are becoming overwhelmed or that your thinking is becoming less available, I will interrupt firmly. This is not a disruption but a necessary safety response. The way I interrupt, the language I use, and the grounding methods we turn to, are all agreed together at the start of our work. We create a plan that suits you: what helps you settle, how you prefer to pause, and what brings you back into the present moment. The intention is that any interruption feels predictable, containing and collaborative.

Working With Brief Overviews Rather Than Detailed Trauma Narratives

To avoid unnecessary activation or retraumatisation, we work with a brief overview of any traumatic events rather than exploring the sensory or graphic details. You might offer the title of the experience together with a short summary of what is clinically relevant, but we do not explore the moment-by-moment narrative or the specific images attached to it.

This helps protect your nervous system while still giving us everything we need to think together. A brief overview allows us to look at the emotional, relational and ethical aspects of the work without immersing ourselves in material that could overwhelm. It also models an approach that supports safety and stability for your own clients. Working in this way keeps supervision reflective rather than reactivating and helps you stay grounded enough to gain clarity and insight.

A Collaborative Relationship

Supervision with me is collaborative and relational. It is a place where uncertainty, emotion, confusion and complexity are welcomed as part of the work. You are not expected to hold everything together or navigate the impact of your work alone. Together we reflect on your responses, your clinical decisions and any moments that may have stayed with you after a session.

This is not a space where you are corrected or judged. It is a space where your emerging clinical voice, your embodied responses and your intuitive knowing can be explored with care. The work adapts to you rather than requiring you to fit a fixed style or structure.

Attending to Your Window of Tolerance

Your nervous system is woven through everything we do. If you are within your window of tolerance you can reflect, think and integrate. If you move too far outside it, supervision can become overwhelming rather than supportive.

I pay attention to subtle cues such as changes in your breathing, posture, pace or emotional tone. If it appears that you are beginning to lose access to reflective thinking, we pause and return to grounding or orientation until you feel steady again. Only then do we continue. This supports both your wellbeing and the effectiveness of supervision.

Understanding Emotional Contagion and Over Identification

Empathy is central to therapeutic work, but it also carries risks. It is possible to take on the emotional states of your clients without noticing, or to imagine traumatic events as if they were happening to you. These experiences can affect your mood, your energy and your overall sense of steadiness.

Supervision offers a place to recognise these responses without shame. Together we explore how your clients’ stories may be impacting you, how you carry those stories in your body and mind and what helps you return to yourself. This reflective process strengthens your clinical clarity and protects your wellbeing.

Working Sustainably

Many helping professionals push themselves beyond their limits. They work long hours, skip breaks or carry more than they realise. Over time, these patterns can lead to exhaustion and compassion fatigue.

Supervision supports you to work sustainably. This may mean looking together at the rhythm of your working week, noticing places where you feel stretched, or exploring the beliefs that make it difficult to rest or set boundaries. The aim is ongoing sustainability so that you can continue doing the work you enjoy without compromising your wellbeing.

Creative, Embodied and Nature Connected Approaches

Supervision with me is individualised and flexible. If creative or embodied approaches support your reflection, we may include drawing, image making, sand tray exploration, gentle movement, somatic tracking or grounding. If you prefer to sit and talk, we hold a reflective talking space. If working outdoors helps you feel settled and spacious, outdoor supervision in the South Lakes is available.

These approaches are invitations rather than requirements. Nothing is imposed. Together we find the ways of working that feel supportive, accessible and right for you.

Making Space for Your Emotional Experience

Your emotional responses are meaningful information. Feelings such as relief, irritation, sadness, hope, numbness or confusion are part of your internal landscape and can offer insight into your work. In supervision, these experiences are welcomed and explored with care. You do not have to carry them alone or attempt to ‘be fine’ for the sake of professionalism. Honouring your emotional experience is part of supporting your long-term sustainability in trauma work.

Grounded in Trauma Understanding and Safe Practice

This approach to supervision is informed by clear and accessible trauma understanding, including the role of the autonomic nervous system, the difference between implicit and explicit memory, the impact of stress physiology, the nature of dissociation and freeze and the importance of grounding before insight. These ideas are held lightly but consistently as a framework that supports your safety and your capacity to reflect.

In Essence

Trauma-informed clinical supervision is calm, relational and safety led. It is collaboratively shaped and individually tailored. It supports you to stay connected to yourself, understand what is happening in your body and mind, and navigate your work with clarity and steadiness. It offers a place where your wellbeing matters and where you can reflect openly and honestly about the impact of your work without judgement. The intention is to help you work in ways that sustain you over the long term and allow you to continue offering safe and compassionate care to others.

References

Rothschild, B. 2000. The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment. New York, W W Norton.