Holding Trust and Protecting Lives: Navigating Confidentiality in Mentoring and Supervision
We cover confidentiality when we are first getting to know a client, yet often it never comes up again. It is vital we and our clients know and keep in mind our role, our limits and our mandatory reporting laws in order to help reduce risk, a competency for all mentors/coaches or professional supervisors… ... Read More
10 Feb 2026
Six Tips for Helping Clients Suffering Abuse
Every experienced mentor, coach and supervisor has had to handle clients who have been dealing with abuse. It is a painful moment to recognise that the client in our care is being mistreated, whether it is something seemingly small, like a condescending and controlling boss at work, to something dangerous and severe, such as a violent partner. It is in these moments that we have to ask ourselves, what is our responsibility...
24 Dec 2025
Walking with Wisdom: Helping Others Navigate Abuse
Today, we are diving into a serious and challenging subject—addressing some potentially triggering material: What should you do in the face of abuse? If this subject matter is close to home and uncomfortable to read, feel free to skip this blog and join us next week. I also encourage anyone who is feeling triggered to reach out to loved ones and professionals for support...
18 Dec 2025
When is it Time to Make a Referral?
Anyone who watches sports knows that it is not one player that wins the game, it is the team. Yes, there are MVPs (Most Valuable Players) but the game wouldn’t be the same without a goalie… without defense… without a coach. This is a good principle to bring into mentoring and professional supervision. We are not competent in every area. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, our own set of skills and our own experiences to draw from. Even the best mentor or supervisor has limitations...
31 Oct 2024
Breaking Down Legally Mandated Reporting
If you have been following Verve Lead’s posts, you will have heard many times about the importance of mandatory reporting. You know the complications that can arise ethically and personally when reporting is handled incorrectly or poorly. This topic arises often because, more than any other competency required in mentors and supervisors, the failure to report has serious legal ramifications and can lead to even more devastating consequences. It can result in serious bodily, psychological or emotional harm or even death… ... Read More
19 Sept 2024
Why Risk Management Matters
We begin our new series on mentoring excellence with risk management. Managing the risks that come with both a person's work and personal life is one of the most common reasons we are sought out for advice, or brought in to help an organisation with their employees. It is our job to aid awareness of risks in our mentee/supervisee’s life and also to manage risks in the professional relationship with our clients. Often the importance of risk management is underestimated. Still, the high stresses that come with facing workplace dangers and discomforts can impact us severely over time and get in the way of doing what God wants us to do. By handling these dangers, ideally before they become dangerous, it allows us all to focus on doing what is truly important...
19 Sept 2024
Mitigating Psychosocial Hazards Within the Workplace
When working with mentees or supervisees, we often come across the concept of safety: physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual. While there are many ways in which a person’s well-being can be at risk, we are often unaware of them, especially in our workplaces. Psychosocial hazards arise from or relate to the design or management of work or a work ... Read More
7 Mar 2024
Formulate Contingency Courses of Action
As a leader, it's important to assess and manage risks in the workplace. This includes not only physical threats, but also mental and emotional ones like burnout. To reduce risks, I seek guidance from experienced colleagues and build strong communication within my team. When risks do arise, I approach them with calm and confident leadership. In this article, I offer tips for identifying and addressing risks in the workplace, drawing from my own experiences as a leader.
31 Dec 2022
The Seven Perspectives: Perspective Seven
The Wider Context We have reached the final perspective in our series. During the last six weeks, we’ve examined the relationships, the backgrounds, the internal and external responses of Professional Supervisors, their Supervisees and the Clients that the Supervisee oversees… and what we can learn from their dynamics as a leader, mentor, mentee or just a human being. The final ... Read More
28 Sept 2022
The Seven Perspectives: Perspective Three
Supervisee-Client Relationship Focused Perspective Today, we continue our series on the Seven Perspectives for Professional Supervisors, looking at Perspective Three; the relationship between the Supervisee and the Client. So far, we have focused on each individually and how they may perceive each other. Perspective Three concerns the relationship between these two individuals. The difference between this and the first two ... Read More
31 Aug 2022
Five Tips for Neutralising Danger in the Workplace
An often overlooked task in the mentor role is ensuring safety; safety for the mentor, for the mentee and for the larger community around both. In fact, safety is an important component in Verve Lead’s front page statement; “Lift buoyancy and resilience of Christian leaders, to enhance the well-being, sustainability and safety of our communities.” The effect of a Christian ... Read More
5 May 2022
Risk Management in Christ
Jesus Sends Out His Disciples (Luke 10:1-4) “The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to ... Read More
24 June 2021