Christopher Mills
I am a freelance supervisor, working in a supportive role alongside professionals in a range of social welfare and health settings, principally family law and psychotherapy.
The reflective supervision I offer provides psychological support for teams and individuals working in stressful environments that involve highly-charged and intense human interaction. These are in the areas of social work, medicine, mental health, law, education and the emergency services.
To be working constantly and at depth with the emotional states of others has an impact on practitioners and staff teams that they need to understand and be able to confidentially express to a third party in order to remain healthy and effective. We can’t help clients or colleagues manage the impact of stress on them if we fail to take responsibility for the impact it also has on us. A rapid increase in levels of burnout among professionals is daily proof of this. Depending on need and circumstances, a supervisor’s role will vary between mentor, educator, coach, supportive challenger or just listening ear.
Since 2012 I have been actively involved in making this model of supervision available for the first time to family solicitors and barristers in the UK. Through FLiP Faculty I organise trainings for professionals wishing to qualify as family law supervisors. As our members graduate they are added to the register of the Association of Family Law Supervisors. My book The Case That Really Got To Me, available to buy here, was written to give an illustration of family law supervision as it unfolds moment-to-moment.
I gained my diploma in supervision from the Centre for Supervision and Team Development (CSTD) in 2013. In 2018 I received a Special Recognition Award from the Emeritus Committee of BCPC for a ‘Unique contribution to the field of psychotherapy, bringing psychotherapy and supervision to the world of family lawyers.’
My passionate belief in the value of supervision results from thirty years of having received it myself as a psychotherapist, working privately, in the NHS and in higher education. I am accredited and registered by the UK Council for Psychotherapy.
Please contact me with any enquiries at: psychrismills@gmail.com
