Supervision with Tom

Supervision with Tom

That "dry toast" feeling

Volume 6

Thomas Smithson's avatar
Thomas Smithson
Jun 08, 2026
∙ Paid

Hey folks, welcome to Volume Six of Supervision with Tom. Where have I been? Ah, living my life I guess. Working on so many projects that my supervision substack just ends up towards the bottom of the list. Not because I’m not passionate, but because I’m not one for forcing ideas, so sometimes it is a waiting game. And as luck would have it, a recent conversation, saying, feeling? Cropped up in my work this week and provided me with a prompt for today.

I’m not sure when I created this saying, but it was long enough ago to become a regular thought during my work with clients. Is it a thought or a feeling? Both, but perhaps more of a feeling.

I would confidently say that most humans have either eaten dry toast - that is toast without a topping. Or can at least imagine the sensation.

It's not particularly nice. But not nessaserally horrible. For me it is a feeling that something is missing in a session, that things are just too dry. And that’s what I call it with clients - in my head that is, not verbally with them in so many words. Sometimes, for many reasons I’m having a session with a client and it feels dry. My mouth is parched, I’m a little, dare I say - bored, distracted and I am desperate for some flavour. Give me some butter, jam, a tangy marmalade. Just not this dry toast.

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