Supervision has always been an important part of the running and development of the mental health service in Western Lapland, whether that be team/group or individual supervision. Unlike in most other mental health services, the emphasis in Open Dialogue supervision is not on analysing the service user and their network and hypothesising about the nature of the mental health challenges they are facing. The emphasis is instead on the practitioner and their experience of the practice. The preference in the service in Western Lapland is to not talk about the network without them being present, and this is one reason why supervision is sometimes organised with the person of concern and their network present. In other services which have developed Open Dialogue internationally, the terms ‘intervision’ or ‘co-supervision’ have been preferred to ‘supervision’, due to a wish to emphasise the non-hierarchical nature of the work.

Supervision is also an important part of longer Open Dialogue training programmes. There are 21 days of supervision in the three year ‘core’ Open Dialogue training programme, and 13 days of supervision on the trainers training programme. Supervision days are organised in small groups, either with live family sessions or video recordings of participants work in network meetings. Supervision is not always included on foundation level training programmes, but services are encouraged to establish supervision sessions/days during and following such training programmes. 

Having run the three year ‘core’ Open Dialogue training programme from Western Lapland on two occasions, and the trainers training programme on three occasions, we at Open Dialogue UK have considerable experience of running supervision days. We have been able over the years to fine tune the ways in which these are organised on training programmes and beyond. We have and continue to organise supervision in-house in NHS trusts and international mental health services, and also online. If you are interested in working with us for supervision of your team, please use the form below to register your interest. Several of the Open Dialogue trainers who we currently work with, and who you can see on this page, are able to provide supervision sessions/days.

Please complete the form below if you would like to organise supervision with us.