There was nothing too spectacular about the death of Ms X, an elderly divorcee.
When she moved into residential care I provided advice on the accommodation contract, assisted in the sale of her home, met her only child, a son, when he visited from the UK, prepared her Will, Enduring Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardian. We updated them when her son died unexpectedly overseas. I helped organise for his body to be flown back to Australia and assisted with his estate administration in liaison with UK solicitors, Ms X died only a few months later and in terms of Ms X’s Will, I was an executor of her estate.
No-one else organised her funeral, so I did, choosing what she was to wear in her coffin and cleaning out her room at the nursing home. I am a Wills and Estates lawyer in rural Australia.
After her funeral service, someone at the service approached me, talked briefly about the impact this sort of work might have on a legal practitioner, mentioned they offered professional supervision and gave me a leaflet.
I had no clue what professional supervision was, so politely thanked them and filed the information away.
A few months later, a cluster of suicides occurred in the area and the families of a few of the deceased instructed me to assist with the estate administrations. Their acute grief, shame, anger and frustration was palpable; for me it was depressing, draining and it lasted as many months as each of those estate administrations.
I had many other files and clients to deal with, outside of work commitments to juggle. I ploughed on. I was fine. This was all just part of my work. - I came across the same person again around this time – again was gently reminded of professional supervision. I decided it was worth a try. I have been receiving regular professional supervision ever since. That has been nearly 5 years.
The lawyer shares proximity to people and clients undergoing stressful experiences. Often these traumas take on a successive, cumulative nature and are not one-off events. The same stressors apply in the same way in other helping professions.
I am Deirdre May, an admitted and practising solicitor in NSW Australia of nearly 20 years. Having trained for three years and completed the accredited supervisor training program Theory & Practice: Wheel of Supervision Parts 1 & 2 with the Centre for Existential Practice I am a trained professional supervisor.
I currently supervise a number of lawyers of all ages, stages, and practice areas. I also supervise other professionals in different helping professions.
I have been, and still am working at the coalface. I have seen and experienced the loneliness, burnout and overwhelm. I discovered that supervision goes a long way to helping refocus myself in the profession.
My passion is to educate professionals about the superpower of Super Vision and to provide and enable supervision for professionals who want to make a difference to themselves, their clients, the services they offer and their profession.
