Pioneering supervision training for school guidance counsellors in Bhutan: Reflections and lessons for the field

The ripples of the modern world and its troubles have deeply intruded the once ancient ways of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. School guidance and coun-selling programs were initiated by the Ministry of Education in Bhutan in the late 1990s to combat increasing rates of violence, family disintegration, crime and suicide among the youth. As counsellors continue to negotiate the complexity of their roles within a traditional education system, they are bewildered by battles of different sorts faced by the younger generation. Supervision was introduced in 2018 to bridge the practice and knowledge gap and support the professional prac-tice of the school guidance counsellors in Bhutan.The article aims to document and provide a reflective exploration of the trainers’ experience in developing and delivering the first supervision training for school guidance counsellors in Bhu-tan. These first-hand reflections further aim to highlight the rules of conceptual engagement across different cultures and the importance of exploring and recog-nizing cross-cultural dialogue. This reflective paper is born out of a collaborative initiative between Edith Cowan University from Western Australia and the Min-istry of Education in Bhutan. The article will be presented in a narrative format reflecting back and forth. It will include feedback and voices of the participants from the supervision training to illustrate aspects of experiences. Exploring ideas of supervision was meaningful and timely for Bhutan. However, cultural per-spectives in contextualising supervision rules and practices to suit the Bhutanese setting will strengthen this professional thread