Supervision – An Essential Resource
By Eileen Crusan
“As practitioners, we learn from our teachers, our own directors and those who come to us. We understand our primary Guide is the Holy Spirit. I suggest another essential resource for us is our supervisor, who serves as teacher, mentor and coach. ”
At the start of my formation in spiritual direction, I was introduced to the ministry of supervision. The program I entered emphasized the importance of having a trained, experienced supervisor, and required we find such a person before we began sitting with others in direction. At that time, not many people had been trained as supervisors, so this was a daunting task.
One of my teachers in my first year of formation was a supervisor, so I asked her if she would be willing to take me on. She said “Yes”. To my very good fortune, she remains my supervisor today.
As practitioners, we learn from our teachers, our own directors and those who come to us. We understand our primary Guide is the Holy Spirit. I suggest another essential resource for us is our supervisor, who serves as teacher, mentor and coach.
In my experience, the task of supervision is to help us be better directors so we remain, as my supervisor says, “in service to the other”. The Rev. Rebecca Bradburn Langer, D. Min., co-editor of the book, Supervision of Spiritual Directors, writes, “As we learn about ourselves, we learn about the God who created us. Supervision is a vehicle in which the supervisor explores with the supervisee who the supervisee is as God’s beloved.” This is the work of supervision.
My supervisor taught me that as I sit with others, God is tending to me. With the help of a trained, experienced supervisor, we are invited to see how God tends to us – illuminating our blind spots, blockages, our personal theology, the importance of boundaries and ethical practice. Done well, our supervisor helps us learn to practice the art of spiritual direction.
I meet with my supervisor monthly. In those meetings, I am received as I am, I feel safe and open to exploring what’s going on in me as I sit with others. In that atmosphere, I hold myself accountable for how I serve. By that I mean, my supervisor helps me ensure that I am practicing with integrity and ethically and that I honor the sacredness of those I accompany. Why is this important? Unlike the medical and financial professions, directors have no oversight or governing board. We receive a certificate or degree in spiritual direction, but we are not “certified”. We do not sit for an exam that may result in “certification”. Without a supervisor, we are “policing” ourselves.
The late William Barry, SJ, in his book, Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with God, writes, “Spiritual directors who trust only themselves and their relationship with God, who do not seek spiritual direction or supervision for themselves, can do a lot of harm.” We are responsible for how we serve. As formation programs proliferate, I worry about students and directors who practice without benefit of a trained, experienced supervisor.
Over the years, my own experience of supervision led two of my teachers to encourage me to enter a supervisory training program [my supervisor was one of those people]. I did so and have been serving as a supervisor since 2011.
I am thankful my formation program emphasized supervision. Working with my own supervisor blesses me personally. My hope is that, as more individuals become trained as supervisors, more formation programs will emphasize the importance of supervision for their students and more directors will see the importance and blessings of this ministry for themselves.
Eileen Crusan serves as a spiritual director and supervisor. She meets virtually or by phone with individuals and groups in both ministries and also offers the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. She is a faculty member with the World on Fire Spiritual Direction Formation Program and can be reached at holyground@carolina.rr.com.
CITATIONS
Langer: Supervision of Spiritual Directors – Engaging in Holy Mystery, edited by Mary Rose Bumpus and Rebecca Bradburn Langer; Chapter Three, Seeing with Clarity: Defining the Supervision Task, page 37.
Barry: Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with God – A Theological Inquiry, Willam A. Barry, SJ; Chapter 7, A Theology of the Ministry of Spiritual Direction, page 103.