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DIPLOMA IN FAMILY LAW SUPERVISION 

COURSE SUMMARY 
This three-part modular training - believed to be the first of its kind in the UK or elsewhere - will qualify successful candidates to provide individual supervision to other family lawyers – both solicitors and barristers. 

Why Family Law Supervision? 

The idea that we can work continuously with other people’s conflict while remaining unaffected and unscathed ourselves is now widely discredited. For many professionals working repeatedly with psychological trauma and human distress, supervision is mandatory. 
 
Effective care of the practitioner is seen as a prerequisite to effective care of the client. But this is not the case in the field of family law, despite growing awareness of chronic stress, workaholism and burnout among family lawyers. 
 
At Family Law in Partnership in London, Partners and Associates have been receiving individual supervision for several years. Founding partner Gillian Bishop has described it as ‘one of the best decisions I have made in my professional life.’ 
 
Generally though, in terms of self-care, the family law profession is playing catch-up. This diploma is driving that change. You could be at the forefront of it. 

Become a family law supervisor 

Now, in order for more family lawyers to be able to access supervision, more supervisors are needed from within the profession. Could you be one of them? 
 
The answer is ‘yes’ if you’re compassionate, curious, fascinated by difference, intuitive, courageous and, above all, a great listener who would like to become an even better one. 
 
The hunger for what supervision offers is evident. Not only is it a primary source of pastoral care, but also an ongoing educative tool. Through the medium of the supervisory relationship, it builds the practitioner’s awareness of the key role played by emotional dynamics in all the stakeholder relationships in family law: between client and client, client and children, client and lawyer, lawyer and lawyer. 
 
Our training is tailored around the understanding that many family lawyers, by their very nature, are fascinated by what makes people tick. It is clear, though, that most basic family law trainings cover only the legal parameters of the work, overlooking the vital insights into effective practice that can be gained from also applying a systemic psychological perspective. 
 
Self-care and client care are the dual building blocks of this perspective and form the core of our supervision model. 

COURSE INFORMATION 

What does the course include? 

At the core of the training delegates attend three two-day modules, taken over a period of 12-15 months. These will prepare candidates to submit for the FLiP Faculty Supervision Diploma - a qualification that we envisage becoming the quality kitemark for supervision in the field of family law. 
 
In addition to the training days you will be receive your own supervision. The costs of the course include for 2 supervision sessions between Modules 1 and 2, then a further three sessions between Modules 2 & 3. 
 
You will also be encouraged and helped to find a maximum of two volunteer supervisees to form a training contract with. 
 
Each training group will be small - a maximum of 15 candidates - and will work as a mutually supportive learning community. 
 
The teaching is highly experiential from the start, using personal experience and role play to introduce and explore the theory of supervision and to forensically examine what the process does, how it works, and how each delegate can personalise it by learning to practise it with their own ‘voice’ and in their own idiom. 
 
You can get further detail on the course page here 

Core learning points 

The Family Law Supervision training will teach you how to: 
 
understand and implement safe and appropriate boundaries; 
recognise the overlap and differences between counselling, coaching and supervision; 
work within the limits of your role and ability and to forward refer when necessary; 
give and receive accurate critical feedback with your supervisees; 
manage confidentiality in different contractual settings; 
listen to, trust and use your intuition effectively; 
challenge over-compliance or over-defensiveness in your supervisee; 
effectively apply empathy, and distinguish it from sympathy; 
problem-solve by facilitation rather than control; 
deal effectively with impasses, breaks and crises in the supervisory contract; 
understand the nature of trust, attachment and vulnerability in the supervisory relationship; 
negotiate possible multiple roles you may have in your supervisee’s life; 
keep effective process notes; 
use the supervision you receive as a critical template for the supervision you provide 

Achieving the Diploma 

To be awarded the Diploma, you will be required to: 
Successfully complete a series of at least ten sessions of supervision with one volunteer supervisee, plus at least ten more sessions with another, or other, volunteer supervisees; 
Submit your process notes for a consecutive set of ten sessions with one of your supervisees; 
Complete a submission paper giving your responses to a set of open-ended questions which invite you to reflect on your progress as a developing supervisor. 
 
Qualification will be determined through a tutorial process with one of the course facilitators. When you qualify, you will become a member of the Association of Family Law Supervisors (www.familylawsupervisors.co.uk) and will be eligible for inclusion on its register. 
 
To continue to practice as an accredited FLiP Faculty Family Law Supervisor you will also be required to sign up and adhere to our Code of Practice and Ethics for Supervisors. 

By the end of the course you will be able to... 

Form, grow and maintain supervision contracts with individual family lawyers, according to the FLiP Faculty Code of Practice and Ethics for Supervisors. 

Speakers -  The line up of speakers will vary from programme to programme but will be form the following team 

Chris Mills is a psychotherapist, family consultant and supervisor. He believes that knowledge of what contributes to healthy and conscious relating provides the bedrock for excellence and success in the work of family law. Chris has been in continuous private practice as a psychotherapist since 1993, working with individuals and couples. Since 2006 he has also worked in interdisciplinary settings alongside family lawyers, attempting to improve the experience of divorce and supporting the healthy reshaping of post-divorce families. As a clinical supervisor, he is the first in the UK to offer psychologically-based supervision to family lawyers. He is the author of The Complete Guide to Divorced Parenting (Camedia Books, 2014) and a regular contributor to the Annalisa Barbieri column in the Guardian Family section. 
 
Zoe Barnes has a passion for people’s mental health and well-being. Her journey began over 25 years ago when she volunteered for SSAFA supporting families within the military and then delivered alternative education programmes to children aged 9-16 who were at risk of or excluded from school. These experiences set Zoe on the path to becoming a qualified therapeutic counsellor and supervisor. She now has a private practice as an integrative therapist, with a focus on Coherence Therapy and seeing both UK and international clients. Zoe also works in the corporate environment where she delivers training, facilitation and therapeutic supervision, working in particular with Law firms, solicitors and barristers. 
 
Andrew Pearce is a Certified Trainer of NLP, UKCP Registered Psychotherapist with over 15 years experience and a Registered Supervisor. He also works as a personal and professional development coach often with senior managers & executives. With his broad spectrum of professional expertise and understanding, he works in a wide variety of areas (including public & private sectors), particularly facilitating change with individuals & groups. He is actively involved in Mediation, Critical Incident support and Collaborative Family Law. He has been interviewed on local & national radio and television on the subject of Life Balance and spoken at Oxford University & Newcastle MBA School about the impact of ambiguity & uncertainty on team dynamics and enabling resilience. His aim is to increase choice for individuals and teams who want the freedom to be authentically who they really are. 
 
Catherine Rodger is a Child and Family Systemic Psychotherapist, a Systemic Supervisor, an academic Tutor and Research Supervisor on systemic postgraduate trainings and an independent Trainer. She worked for many years as a Family Therapist in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services within the NHS in South London in a variety of outpatient and clinic settings. For the last 8 years she has moved into private practice in Kent in a low cost counselling charity. 
In recognition of his efforts in developing this course Chris received a Special Recognition Award by the BCPC Emeritus Committee in 2018 for a 'Unique contribution to the field of psychotherapy by introducing psychotherapy and supervision to the world of family lawyers.’ 
 

BOOK YOUR PLACE 

Event Pricing 

Course Pricing 
 
The price for the full Family Law Supervision programme will be £3,250 + VAT 
 
This includes: 
3 x two day training modules 
5 x individual supervision sessions 
3 x course assessments (an essay, an assessment of session process notes, and a three-way appraisal protocol) 
1 x year's inclusion on the FLiP Faculty register of accredited Family Law Supervisors 

Dates 

Below are the details of any courses currently in progress (for reference only) and of those scheduled to start in the future. If you are interested in future programmes not shown here and would like to be told when these are available please contact us on help@flipfaculty.org. 
Next Programme FS111 
(London) 
Next Programme FS112 
(to be confirmed) 
Module 1: 2nd & 3rd May 2024 
The dates for the next programme 
will be available in due course.  
Module 2: 21st & 22nd November 2024 
If you are interested in joining 
the next cohort of Family Law Supervisors 
Module 3: 1st & 2nd May 2025 
Please email us at help@flipfaculty.org 
Individual supervision sessions will be booked directly with the relevant presenter. Two sessions to occur between modules 1 and 2. A further three sessions to occur between modules 2 and 3. 

Venues

02 May 2024 London Venue Info
The course will be held at a venue in Central London
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Courses

Diploma in Family Law Supervision A modular training programme enabling successful candidates to provide individual supervision to other family lawyers. Info

Set texts 

Hawkins, P & Shohet, R (1989/2013). Supervision In The Helping Professions. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press (4th ed.) 
Mills, C (2018). The Case That Really Got To Me: An Introduction To Family Law Supervision. London: Goldrealm