The Supervisory Encounter

Good supervision is crucial to the training of any therapist. Yet most who are asked to supervise receive little instruction in how best to proceed. What is missing is a theory and technique of supervision that can help them be effective teachers, no matter from what mental health discipline they come.

The authors of this book, who have supervised in a variety of educational settings and have taught students from a wide range of mental health disciplines, now provide a theoretical and technical framework for understanding and deepening the supervisory process. They clearly describe phases of supervision (from the opening session to termination), its goals, and the nature and purpose of a number of supervisory interventions. They delineate modes of thinking that are essential to being a good therapist and discuss how best to foster them. They demonstrate how supervision can be intimate, personal, and honest without becoming a form of therapy. Through clinical vignettes, they show how to diagnose impediments to learning and describe strategies for overcoming them. While providing an interesting history of supervision and a portrait of Freud as supervisor, they focus mainly on how newer theories such as self psychology, intersubjectivity, and an interactive two-person psychology influence the practice of supervision.