Individual vs. group supervision: Both individual and group supervision count toward your professional obligations, and both are genuinely valuable — they just offer different things. If you’re deciding between them, or wondering whether to add one alongside the other, here’s how they differ in practice. Individual supervision One-to-one supervision is entirely about your caseload, at […]
Author: John Belchamber
How to Choose the Right Clinical Supervisor
Picking a supervisor is one of those decisions that’s easy to rush — especially if you’re up against a renewal deadline — but it’s worth slowing down for. You’ll be bringing this person your hardest cases and your own doubts about your practice. Here’s what’s worth checking before you commit. Start with credentials At minimum, […]
What Is Clinical Supervision, and Why Do Counsellors Actually Need It?
If you’re newer to private practice, or just starting to think seriously about it, “supervision” can feel like one more box to tick for your membership renewal. It’s worth far more than that — done well, it’s one of the few places in this work where you get to slow down, think out loud, and […]
Introducing Supervision at Sunny Coast Counselling: The STEP-UP Approach
If you’re a counsellor building a private practice — whether you’re just starting out or a few years in — finding the right clinical supervisor matters. This month I’m formally opening up a new side of my work at Sunny Coast Counselling: individual and group clinical supervision for counsellors, delivered in person here on the […]
Why Manager Training Changes Workplace Mental Health Outcomes
Most workplace mental health strategies focus on the employee — an EAP, a wellness app, a poster in the lunchroom. All useful. But a growing body of research points to a simpler lever that’s often overlooked: the manager. Managers are the first point of contact — for better or worse When an employee is struggling, […]
When Does Everyday Worry Become Anxiety? Recognising the Signs
Worry is part of being human. A looming deadline, a health scare, a hard conversation you’re putting off — these things are supposed to make us anxious. The question we hear often in the counselling room isn’t “why am I anxious,” it’s “how do I know if this is normal, or something more?” Just how […]
Grief Doesn’t Follow a Timeline: Understanding Prolonged Grief
Most of us grew up with a version of grief that moves in stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — as if sorrow were a checklist to work through in order, arriving somewhere clean and finished on the other side. It’s a comforting idea. It’s also not how grief actually works. Where the “stages” […]
The “Always-On” Trap: Setting Boundaries Between Work and Home
It’s 8:47pm. You’ve had dinner, the kids are in bed, and your phone buzzes on the couch beside you. It’s a work email. You tell yourself you’ll “just have a quick look” — and twenty minutes later you’re mentally back at your desk, heart rate up, evening gone. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. […]
Is Work Affecting Your Mental Health? What Your EAP Actually Covers
It often starts quietly. Sunday evenings develop a knot of dread. You’re replaying conversations with your manager in the shower. You’re at your desk, but your concentration left an hour ago. Work stress has a way of seeping past the office door — into sleep, patience with the kids, the relationship, the weekend. If some […]
Managing Anxiety: Evidence-Based Strategies That Actually Help
Everyone knows the feeling: the racing heart before a difficult conversation, the 3am mind that won’t switch off, the knot in the stomach that arrives before you’ve even worked out what it’s about. Anxiety is part of being human — it’s the body’s alarm system, and for most of our history it kept us alive. […]