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THE
IMPACT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS ON ETHICAL MINDEDNESS IN SUPERVISION
MARCH 13th 2004
Coming from the BACP new "Ethical
Framework for Good Practice" and taken up by UKCP, the therapy field
is moving away from external prescriptive 'codes of ethics' to encouraging
therapists to develop their own inner ethical mindedness. Conscious
ethical mindedness in supervision is inevitably vulnerable to unconscious
defence mechanisms against various pressures: external pressures through
demands from agency employers, professional bodies, supervisees and
through them from their clients as well as internal pressures from
fatigue, anxiety, complacency and other more subtle states of mind such as
feeling experienced, eminent, having 'arrived' and being omnipotent. The
supervisee's ethical mindedness is vulnerable too and both may collude at
an unconscious level. This was the area to be addressed by the 25 people
gathered for the conference.
Uncannily, the dynamics of the theme took
hold from the moment that the conference committee arrived and unlocked
the premises (LCP) and inadvertently set off the alarm system. Chaos and
uncertainty entered our carefully prepared 'nest'. Anxiety was triggered
which reverberated in different ways at various levels during the
conference. Unconscious dynamics to defend against anxiety took hold
giving us all a collective experience of the phenomena involved in what we
were studying as well as in our own responses in the plenary and small
groups. Unsurprisingly this was found to be hard to put into words and the
question was raised whether it was possible to communicate anything to
'the group', let alone to people who had not taken part in our collective
experience, by writing a piece for the BAPPS newsletter - or was this too
a resistance to the work in hand? So, am I resisting the group process,
rebelling against the resistance of the group or simply getting on with
'the task' by writing this report of the conference? You may well ask.
When there is real external anxiety about
safety - how to control the alarm system (will the LCP's insurers sue us
if the alarm is not reset and there is a burglary?), how to stop worrying
when the next terrorist atrocity is going to happen - internal anxiety is
aroused. Do we then resort to suppression/repression, rebellion, seek a
rescuer/ messiah, or what? Internal anxiety makes 'fundamentalist'
authority attractive - the promise of safety and certainty - whether it is
protection from terrorists, certainty of rewards in heaven, a supervisor
who will promise that we will be OK if we do what she says, a code of
ethics that will protect us from all eventualities or a delusion that we
think we are right. The more we create a false external safety to deny
danger and our own vulnerability, the more unsafe and chaotic it becomes
internally. We think we remember accurately what we heard/saw/etc in
reality and are shocked at evidence that disproves this.
The question emerged: Are ethical dilemmas
real or a manifestation of resistance to the work? The supervisee brings a
narrative - part her own and part the client's - that delineates a
dilemma. Should we ignore external reality of potential danger and focus
on the resistance to the unconscious processes in the psychoanalytic work
that the dilemma represents? What is our personal tolerance level of
anxiety? It could all 'go wrong' and rebound on us. How much inner chaos
and uncertainty can we bear in a world where external danger is real and
we 'know' that we cannot have 'real' safety or certainty?
All questions and no answers! Is this a
'true' report of the conference? Of course not. It is my 'narrative truth'
and there are 24 other versions! So 'truth' is another reality that we
can't have - but most of the time we think we have it and sometimes act as
if we have a monopoly on it. Are you confused by now as you read this? I
am too. Yet, I still have hope that I can enable my supervisees to
struggle with these elements of the analytic work and not give up.
Ruth Barnett
Conference Committee
A
Supervisory Challenge
I supervise groups from several different
organisations. I was supervising a group and listening to a supervisee. It
began to dawn on me that the client I was being told about was also seeing
a counsellor from one of my other supervision groups within another
organisation. Both my supervisees were unaware that their client was
'seeing someone else'.
What would you do?
Gerri Dogmetchi
BAPPS
WEST
BAPPS
West held its inaugural event on the 27th of March in Bristol. Ruth Barnett convened a highly appreciated day seminar on the
supervision of supervision.
Participants
requested that BAPPS West offer more supervision activities.
Ann Bowes is the contact for further information - ann@bowes21.fsnet.co.uk
ADMINISTRATION
Welcome
to the following new members
Roger
Lloyd
494
Heathway
Dagenham
Essex
RM10 7SM
0208
984 9887
rogerblloyd@aol.com
[
UKCP ]
Helen
Reason
21
Bearton Avenue
Hitchin
HERTS
SG5 1NZ
01462
442249
helen@reason7.freeserve.co.uk
[
BACP UKRC]
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BAPPS
LEGAL LIABILITY
At present we are an Association of
Colleagues in the eyes of the law. This means that if BAPPS were sued for
damages of any kind by an outside body, and our existing resources did not
cover the compensation and costs demanded, then every member would be
liable for a share of the shortfall.
This is not a matter of professional
complaints; for BAPPS it is the much more real possibility of damage to a
conference venue or other rented premises. For example, the Conference on
13 March took place at LCP; there were problems with re-setting the alarm.
If we had not realised this, had left the building and it had been broken
into or damaged, BAPPS would have been liable for very large costs.
The choice is between liability insurance,
and becoming a Company Limited by Guarantee. Insurance is becoming less
and less safe; less than half the claims made are actually settled, and
cover is not cheap.
To make BAPPS into a Company Limited by
Guarantee will cost up to £1000 in the first instance to set it up. This
may well be less, as we are neither a training nor an accrediting agency.
Thereafter it will cost around £450 per annum for general services &
audited accounts. This would be less than ongoing insurance cover. Under
this scheme, members would be liable for a fixed limit of any claim,
possibly as low as £1.
At the EGM on 13 March, it was agreed that
the Executive should continue to research information around this, and
bring it to the AGM in October for a decisive vote that BAPPS should form
itself into a Company Limited by Guarantee. If the proposal is carried,
the Executive will set up the process at once.
Not everyone can be at the AGM of course.
The formal proposal and voting papers will be sent out with the other
items well before the meeting, and I would ask you all to think about it
and make sure that you send your vote even if you cannot be there.
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CONSTITUTIONAL
CHANGES
The present Constitution was drawn up some
years ago when BAPPS was a new and small organisation. Membership has
grown and BAPPS finds itself in a unique position as an accrediting body
for Supervisors, with organisational membership of UKCP & BACP.
However, procedure at recent meetings has been hampered by present
constitutional requirements; particularly in relation to the stated number
of members required to form a quorum at General Meetings. The present
constitution does not deal with how voting takes place at General
Meetings. It deals only with voting at Executive Meetings. It does not
provide for different decisions requiring different majorities; see
Section O(4). We have no laid down procedure for proposing someone for
appointment to office.
Clause F: originally did not provide for
election of the Chair alongside the Secretary and Treasurer. This has been
amended to provide for this.
Clause G(1)(a): has also been amended so
that now 3 honorary officers (including the Chair) are automatically on
the Executive Committee. Therefore also G(1)(b) is altered to say that the
additional members of the Executive number between two and five (not 3 and
6) to equal a total of no more than 8 members.
BAPPS was offered a pro bono
(complimentary) review of the Constitution by a solicitor and, as a
result, the enclosed simple amendments (in Bold in Constitution ) were
suggested, to bring us up to date, and in line with other organisations
& constitutions.
Please Note: the EGM agreed that the number
for a quorum will be 15 (fifteen). BAPPS is advised that it is not
necessary to include a fraction of a figure as an alternative quorum
figure, as in the present constitution.
We ask the membership to consider the new
amendments, in order to endorse the adoption of the new Constitution. We
need your agreement in order that those of you who attend General
Meetings, alongside those members you have elected as officers to carry on
the business of BAPPS, at AGMs and EGMs, can be given a practical means of
drawing up proposals, & putting them to the vote of the small
membership who are present at business meetings, in order to to make
appropriate decisions on behalf of the organisation.
Irene Hamilton
on behalf of the Executive Committee
Autumn
Conference
Free
Conference Place !
If
anyone is willing to write a report of the Autumn Conference on October
16th in exchange for a free ticket to the event, please contact Ted
Martin.
Publications
Sub-Committee
The
publication sub-committee welcomes contributions of up to 500 words,
especially for 'supervisory quirks' in the form of a piece of short
comment rather than a formal paper.
Deadline
for agreed BAPPS Conference write ups to be received by the committee
within three weeks after the conference.
'The
BAPPs' Newsletter is happy to publish details of
psychodynamic/psychoanalytic & supervisory events that promote
clinical & supervisory understanding unless the dates clash with a
BAPPS event.
There would be a nominal
charge to assist the postage costs. The advertisement to be no more than
half a page
The
sub-committee reserves the right to edit contributions as necessary.
Deadline
for next
edition of newsletter is
17 JUNE 2004
Ruth
Barnett -
ruthLbarnett@aol.com
Ann
Bowes - ann@bowes21.fsnet.co.uk
Chris Driver - chris@driver4.prestel.co.uk
Ted
Martin
- emartin@fsmail.net
Executive
Committee
WANTED
for the AGM 2004
Nominations for
CHAIR
HONORARY SECRETARY
Also
Volunteers for Conference Sub Committee
arranging
essential & enjoyable occasions which are the only meeting place for
all BAPPS members.
Is that you?
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EGM
13 March 2004
This
was attended by about 20 people, after the Spring Conference. The
Executive presented the facts above, and introduced the two firms of
solicitors who could be employed to put the arrangements in place: Bookers
and Bolton, who work with UKCP, and Jordans of Bristol, who have done the
work for a number of psychotherapy organisations.
It
was accepted that the status of becoming a Company Limited by Guarantee
would involve changes to the Constitution, and that the solicitors would
put these in place. Accounts would have to be audited, which would be
organised by the solicitors for the amounts of about £450 per year. It
was pointed out that BAPPS could submit ‘short accounts’.
A
point came up concerning the necessary number of people present in any
meeting to vote changes such as this. At present the quorum is set at 60,
and needs to be changed so that we can be confident of having a proper
vote at the AGM. The meeting voted that the number set in the present
Constitution should be lowered to make it more realistic. Irene Hamilton
is taking responsibility for this, and gives a report on the following
page. For this reason, no
vote could be taken at the EGM.
It
was established that BAPPS has the funds to cover the process, if it went
ahead.
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The
meeting felt that by becoming a Company Limited by Guarantee, BAPPS would
gain organizational and legal standing within the profession, and
particularly with UKCP as we are
growing fast, & thinking in terms of becoming a supervision
accrediting organisation.
One
question came up: would being a Company Limited by Guarantee cover us for
all costs, or would indemnity insurance also be needed? If the latter,
would it need to cover the entire membership or just the directors? This
will be clarified before the AGM.
The
meeting agreed that BAPPS Executive and members need to have protection
from financial liability. It was agreed that the Executive be delegated to
proceed with the preparations to present the matter to the membership at
the AGM for voting.
Isobel
Clark
Chair
Annual
subscriptions
This year we have
again held the subscriptions at £42, keeping the same level as the last
two years. However, it has been agreed to increase the subscriptions next
year to £45 when we are then hoping to make a five year freeze on all
members who are willing to sign up to a standing order. This will reduce
administration and fall in line with the new efficiency required of a
growing organisation.
Please send any comments to Eddy Roworth, Honory Treasurer.
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