Counselling Supervision, Online and in Milton Keynes
I tutor counsellors to level 6 + Not another box to tick
You already know what bad supervision feels like. You leave having said what you needed to say, the hours are logged, the requirement is met, and nothing has actually moved.
If you are shopping around because that is where you have ended up, this page is written for you rather than for a directory listing.
First, Whether I Am the Right Fit at All
Some of this rules me out, so it may as well come first.
If you are BABCP accredited, or you work inside NHS Talking Therapies, you probably need someone else. Those systems require an accredited supervisor with recognised supervisor training, and BABCP additionally asks for live supervision, meaning your supervisor observes a recording or a session at least twice a year. I am not BABCP accredited and I would rather tell you that now than three sessions in.
If you work in a modality I do not, say so on the call. Matching modality matters more in supervision than it does in therapy, and a supervisor who does not really understand how you work will quietly slow you down for a year before either of you names it.
What I am is an integrative practitioner in practice since 2013, holding an Advanced Specialist Counselling Supervision Diploma awarded by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society in 2025, who also tutors counselling and hypnotherapy students at RQF levels 3 to 6.
What Your Body Actually Requires
Worth being precise about this, because the number you need depends on who registers you, and a lot of websites round it into one figure that is wrong for some readers.
BACP, NCPS and BABCP all set a minimum of around one and a half hours a month for qualified full-time practice.
UKCP is stricter, and it is the one people get wrong. For the first three years after registration it expects an hour a month of individual supervision plus an hour and a half a month of consultation, relaxing to twelve hours a year after that. Requirements also vary by College within UKCP, so check your own.
Trainees are a different regime entirely. BACP trainees work to roughly one hour of supervision per eight client hours, with supervision at least fortnightly. NHS Talking Therapies trainees get considerably more than that.
Check your own body's live pages rather than taking my word for it. These requirements move, and you are the one who carries the consequence if they have.
If You Are Still in Training
Trainee supervision is not just qualified supervision with fewer years on it, and the power sits differently.
Your supervisor writes the report to your college and signs off your hours. One missed session can invalidate a month of client hours. That is a lot of leverage to hand to someone you picked off a directory because they were nearby and available, and it is worth choosing on more than that.
What I would want you to get from it is the thing training is often too busy to give you: room to be wrong out loud. If you are managing your supervisor's opinion of you, the supervision is not doing its job, and neither of us finds out what you actually needed to talk about.
How I Work
Not a review meeting. We will do the ethical and caseload work, because that is what the hours are for and it has to be done properly. But the part that earns its place is the rest of it.
I am on the teaching side of the qualification a lot of my supervisees are working towards, which means I spend my week explaining this material to people who are about to be assessed on it. That keeps the theory close to hand, and it tends to make me quicker at spotting where a difficulty is about the model rather than about the client.
I also run a private practice, so the parts of this work that are not clinical are not foreign to me. Boundaries, admin, the money, and the particular way that working alone lets things build up unnoticed until you are further into burnout than you meant to be.
Individual supervision, in person in Wolverton or online. Online is not a lesser version of it, and for supervision specifically it widens who you can choose from, which is the whole point.
How to Choose a Supervisor, Including If It Isn't Me
I would rather you chose well than chose me. Four things worth knowing before you commit to anyone.
1. Fit Beats Cost and Convenience
The supervisor most likely to be useful to you is rarely the nearest, the cheapest or the one with the most availability. It is the one whose own practice you find interesting and whose thinking you want in your head. That is not a soft criterion. It is the one that determines whether you tell them the truth.
2. Speak to More Than One
Have an initial conversation with two or three before deciding. Nobody minds, everyone expects it, and it is the only way to notice that the first person you spoke to was not actually right. If a supervisor seems put out that you are talking to others, you have learned something useful.
3. Ask How They Handle Being Disagreed With
Ask it directly on the first call. The failure mode that does the most damage is a supervisor who invites feedback and then defends against it, because after that you stop bringing anything real and the hours become decorative.
4. Changing Supervisor Is Not Disloyalty
If you have been going for two years and nothing has developed, that is a reason to move, not evidence that you are difficult. Repetition without growth and a mismatch of specialism are both ordinary and legitimate reasons to change. Your development is the point, not the relationship's longevity.
Common Questions
Do You Take Trainees?
Yes, and I will be straight with you about the report and sign-off side of it from the start, so it is never a surprise.
Does My Supervisor Have to Hold a Supervision Qualification?
It depends on your body. BACP and NCPS expect training and competence without making a specific diploma compulsory. BABCP and the NHS Talking Therapies system do require accredited supervisors with recognised supervisor training. I hold an advanced specialist supervision diploma either way.
What Does It Cost?
Ask me and I will tell you straight away rather than making you hunt for it. Trainee and qualified rates differ.
Can We Do It Online?
Yes, and for supervision I would go further and say online is often the better call, because it means you can choose the right supervisor rather than the nearest one.
Do You Offer Group Supervision?
Ask me. There is very little group supervision available locally and it is cheaper per person, so if there is appetite for it I am interested.
I Am Not Sure My Current Supervision Is Working. Is That Worth a Conversation?
Yes, even if you decide to stay where you are. Working out what is missing is useful in itself, and I am not going to spend the call trying to sign you up.
Send me a message telling me where you are in your training or practice and what you are looking for. Getting in touch commits you to nothing, and I would encourage you to talk to a couple of other supervisors as well.
Send me a messageIf you decide to go ahead, the first full session is half price.
David LloydCounsellor, psychotherapist and coach, Wolverton, Milton Keynes