Learning from experience – anxiety, defence and leadership in group supervision: the implications for supervision and reflective practice

Despite the apparent centrality of supervision to the effectiveness of social work practice, this topic remains largely under researched. The majority of studies to date have relied on self-reporting mechanisms to understand ‘what happens’ in supervision, with few accessing supervision directly, and none, to the writer’s knowledge, attempting to analyse the impact of unconscious processes. This paper aims to contribute to this gap in the knowledge base by analysing the conscious and unconscious processes at play in two cohorts of systemic group supervision held in UK children’s services, and how such processes, alongside the leadership styles of the supervisors, impacted on the nature of supervision practice. A psychoanalytically informed research methodology is employed to study the group supervision sessions, and the subsequent data analysed through a thematic analysis. This paper employs Bion’s model of thought outlined in Learning from Experience to explore how each group developed its own unique ability to think in light of its capacity to contain anxiety. Implications for the nature of reflective practice in the supervision, and social work practice more broadly, are then discussed.