389 – Clinical Supervision and Line Management

Working with Sex and Porn Addiction – Making Sense of PD Groups

In Episode 389 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week’s three topics:

Firstly, in ‘Ethical, Sustainable Practice’, they explore clinical supervision and line management – the separation of the two under the new BACP Ethical Framework 2026, and whether it could create more demand for clinical supervisors.

Then in ‘Practice Matters‘, Rory speaks with Dr. Paula Hall about working with sex and porn addiction – and how therapists can understand and respond to compulsive sexual behaviour.

And finally, in ‘Student Services‘, Rory and Ken discuss making sense of personal development groups – what they are for and why they matter in training.

Clinical Supervision and Line Management [starts at 02:58 mins]

In this section, Rory and Ken explore clinical supervision and line management under the new BACP Ethical Framework 2026. They look at how it separates supervision from case management, and what this might mean for the demand for independent supervisors.

Key points discussed include:

• The new BACP Ethical Framework, which becomes mandatory on 3 November 2026, separates clinical supervision more clearly from line management and case management.
• For many years, counsellors in organisations have sometimes received clinical supervision from the same person who manages their performance, allocates their clients and handles disciplinary matters.
• External or independent supervision allows a practitioner to speak frankly and with candour about their work, their clients and the organisation itself.
• Clinical supervision, line management and case management are distinct functions, and expecting one person to hold all three is a substantial and potentially conflicting workload.
• Section 4.3 of the framework requires supervision to be appropriate to the supervisee’s work and aligned with the BACP Supervision Competence Framework.
• The hosts suggest the change could create fresh demand and opportunities for qualified, competent clinical supervisors, including through online and telephone working.

Working with Sex and Porn Addiction [starts at 23:08 mins]

In this week’s ‘Practice Matters’, Rory speaks with Dr. Paula Hall about working with compulsive sexual behaviour, sometimes referred to as sex and porn addiction, and how counsellors can respond to it.

Key points from this conversation include:

• The World Health Organization now uses the term compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD), although the diagnosis is still evolving and not yet settled.
• Paula Hall suggests working with the client’s distress rather than the label, meeting them in their own frame of reference and using the language they bring.
• She notes that around 70,000 people in the UK search online each month for help with sex or porn addiction, compared with very few who search for CSBD.
• Compulsive sexual behaviour is usually about emotional regulation rather than appetite or sex drive, which is why she likens it more to disordered eating than to classic addiction.
• A client whose distress is largely moral or shame-based may not meet the clinical criteria, and counsellors should be ready to refer on where specialist work is needed.
• Her CHOICE recovery model focuses on positive sexuality and well-being rather than abstinence, works at the client’s own pace, and her forthcoming edition includes a chapter on neurodivergent clients.

Making Sense of PD Groups [starts at 50:53 mins]

In this section, Rory and Ken discuss what personal development groups are, how they differ from therapy, and why they can be such a powerful part of training.

Key points include:

• A personal development group is a space where students on the same course can process the changes their training brings up, often acting like a decompression chamber at the end of a session.
• Rory frames the PD group as a form of encounter group, drawing on Carl Rogers’s later work, where members meet and are real about how they experience one another.
• It is not therapy or group therapy, even though it can feel therapeutic, and its purpose is personal development rather than fixing or advising others.
• Ken highlights that challenging feelings in the group belong to the individual, since emotions originate internally and offer an opportunity for self-reflection.
• The group is also a place to practise active listening, to sit with silence, and to notice the urge to fix or rescue others.
• Both hosts reflect that PD groups can produce powerful, lasting personal shifts and are often deeply missed once training ends.

Links and Resources

Counselling Skills Academy

Advanced Certificate in Counselling Supervision

Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide

Counsellor CPD

Counselling Study Resource

Counselling Theory in Practice: A Student Guide

Counselling Tutor Training and CPD

Facebook group

Website

Online and Telephone Counselling: A Practitioner’s Guide

Online and Telephone Counselling Course