What does Ecotherapy Clinical Supervision Look Like?

Hiking through vast ravines and forests, alongside several therapists who have been coming to meet with me for clinical supervision, we explore the work they are wanting to dig deeper into. The therapists raise questions about the clients they are working with to help support the healing of their clients, their growth as therapists, and we all learn together as we cocreate and expand our understanding of this work as psychotherapists. At times on the trails we pause and notice the beauty all around us, and metaphors or wisdom present themselves as lessons. The wise old trees we walk by seem to offer a wider perspective from their years of silent presence and witnessing. We gain reminders of the power of simply being with our clients in their suffering, of attunement, and of deep listening.

Together my supervisees and I, whether in individual supervision, paired supervision, or group supervision, raise questions about the impacts of oppression for those we work with. As therapists we experience the significance of being in community to actively dismantle colonization, racism, transphobia, queer hate, ableism and other forms of oppression. Together we support our collective understanding for how these oppressive structures impact our clients, how we can show up better to support our clients, to dismantle systemic oppression in the field of psychotherapy, and to gain insight into how these forms of oppression impact us as humans. Along with the therapists I work with in group clinical supervision, we collaboratively ask these difficult questions, reflect, and grow. We discover again the power of community, and together we can lean in to learn from voices to foster growth and healing.

We leave the forest to rest and make some notes at a picnic table off the trails. We savour the opportunities to move our bodies and have a break from screens, to have these clinical conversations out in the vastness of nature, and our gratitude to this special place opens our humility and reminds us how connected to the earth we actually are. As we leave, new understandings of relationship are strengthened, in our work with clients, together with other therapists, and of our indebtedness to the land for the many gifts offered.

Sending gratitude as therapists where we can explore this landscape of healing together.

Sincerely,

Melissa

Melissa Clews-Hunt, MSc, RP, RMFT- SM

Psychotherapist & Clinical Supervisor

Healing Spaces Therapy