How do you actually do postgraduate supervision? What informs your doing? Using writing as a form of inquiry, this paper seeks to explore and interrogate a particular set of postgraduate supervisory practices and relationships. Positioning postgraduate supervision as pedagogy I try and show a set of practices informed by bell hooks' idea of a supervisor as someone who witnesses the student and their work. This seems to be especially important when working with students whose research topic involves stories, experiences and other 'data' which can engender a visceral effect on the listener/reader. The emerging results of this inquiry are that self consciously embracing a head/heart stance within the supervisory relationship is crucial in an environment where emotions and the body are often neglected or silenced.