Coaching Supervision in Practice: Coaching Supervisors’ Perspectives on Supporting Coaches’ Professional Development

Coaching supervision is widely advocated as supporting coaches’ professional development, yet the evidence base remains limited. This qualitative study explored how experienced coaching supervisors understand supervision's contribution to coach development. Semi-structured interviews with UK-based supervisors, framed by the seven-eyed model, were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Six themes were constructed: contracting the supervisory space; the supervisor's use of self; widening the coach's repertoire; the organisational bind of internal supervision; relational trust as the condition for challenge; and ethical vigilance as shared inquiry. Participants positioned contracting, supervisor self-awareness and relational trust as central, and described internal supervision as constraining disclosure. They also moved between repertoire-based and reflexive accounts of development without distinguishing them. The findings represent supervisors’ perceptions and offer directions for supervisory practice, organisational policy and further research.