Meeting and Developing Your Own Inner-Supervisor
In the second session of this 2-part workshop series, Gillian Walter and Shirley Smith will build upon their creative interpretation of the 7-Eyed Model of Supervision. They will recap how this model facilitates powerful inner supervisor experiences, helping practitioners work with image and metaphor to support their supervision practice.
This session is designed as an experiential exploration into each participants’ inner-strengths and not as a lesson in the 7-Eyed Model of Supervision. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with creative tools, working through supervision cases while learning how to leverage their own inner critics as a resource. They will be guided to develop their inner-supervisor and explore how to bring their best selves into client work.
This is an experiential, hands-on session, encouraging playful, creative reflection with the 7 Eyed Model of Supervision as an example. We will not be teaching the model.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- Connect with your own creativity through practical and creative supervision techniques.
- Use creative methods to overcome challenges and get unstuck in supervision.
- Learn how to bring your best self into supervision and client work by utilising inner resources and metaphors.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Practitioners in the people professions such as Coaches, Supervisors, Counsellors, and Therapists.
- Those looking for fresh approaches to supervision and reflective practice.
- Professionals open to using creative, metaphorical, and playful techniques to enhance their sessions.
- This session is about playful exploration using this model and the Winnie the Pooh stories as examples. Anyone who prefers a more academic understanding of the 7-Eyed Model of Supervision or wants an idea of who the Winnie the Pooh Characters and stories are, can find this information online and in the Onlinevents CPD library.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- Access more creativity and deepen connection to ‘best self’ in supervision.
- Confidence in using creative tools, such as imagery, story, and metaphor.
- A fresh approach to the 7-Eyed Model, allowing flexibility and a light-hearted, exploratory practice.
Participant Feedback Highlights:
- “This workshop was fantastic for allowing me to explore my questions creatively and to recognise that whilst my role is responsible, it doesn’t have to be so serious. We can create, explore and play!”
- “Engaging, creative, fun, therapeutic, and brilliant.”
- “Really engaging experience, connecting with other practitioners and reflecting in a creative way using the 7-Eyed Model.”
- “Gillian is a gifted speaker and presenter who inspires us to be better practitioners.”
- “The creative and imaginative way of sourcing insights was extremely helpful.”
- “Growing ease with working creatively and growing belief in self.”
- “Having a creative way of challenging my party pooper when it pops up.”
- “Discovering, acknowledging, and sharing my ‘BEST’ self.”
- “Interesting insights to be able to use with clients and in my own supervision.”
- “I now have confidence to use this as a newly skilled supervisor—getting a 360-degree view.”
- “Encouraged to explore using imagery in supervision in therapy work.”
Course Content
Organisation

Independent Supervisors Network hosts International Supervision Week with Onlinevents
Presenter

Gillian is a coach, supervisor, mentor, and author accredited at master practitioner level by the ICF and EMCC. She is accredited as a supervisor by the EMCC, EASC, and CSA. She founded Inside-Out Coaching and Brave Voice Books. Her expertise lies in combining creative and transformational tools with reflective practice to encourage personal and professional growth. Gillian’s work integrates her belief in the power of metaphor and storytelling, especially in supervision. Her first book, ‘Choir of Brave Voices’, encourages readers to develop their reflective practice and explore different perspectives to deepen their emotional, mental, and physical resourcefulness. these spaces for peer creative reflection bring an infinite mirror hall to each individual case reflection.

Shirley has extensive cross-cultural experience as a coach, mentor, and supervisor. Her background in global human resources gives her a unique perspective on leadership development. Shirley has developed expertise in using creative tools and art-based approaches to explore difficult dynamics when language falls short. Her work with imagery and embodied approaches, honed over 30 years, provides clients with a new way of thinking and processing their experiences, applicable both in-person and virtually.