Supervision

Supervision is a professional space for examining therapeutic work — particular cases, the process between therapist and client, clinical decisions, difficulties, boundaries and the therapist's own responses.

The purpose is not for the supervisor to give the "right answer", but to help the case be seen more clearly and to widen the therapist's options for working.

Who supervision is for

Supervision can be part of a psychotherapist's training and professional development, but it also has a place in the practice of experienced therapists. There does not have to be a "problem case" for supervision to be worthwhile.

• therapists in training;
• practising psychotherapists;
• therapists who want to examine a particular case or process;
• therapists meeting a recurring difficulty in their work;
• practitioners who want to explore their own position in the therapeutic relationship.

What can be examined

• understanding and formulating the case;
• the therapeutic relationship;
• transference and countertransference, where relevant to the approach;
• boundaries and the frame;
• difficult moments or a stalled therapy;
• strong responses in the therapist;
• the choice and timing of interventions;
• working with the body;
• traumatic process;
• ethical dilemmas;
• ending or referring on;
• the therapist's own load and professional sustainability.

How Diana works in supervision

Diana attends both to the content of the case and to the process happening between the client and the therapist. Attention may also go to the therapist's bodily responses, impulses to act, places of tension or withdrawal, and the way these can inform an understanding of the therapeutic situation.

The therapist's bodily responses can be treated as one form of information in the supervisory process, alongside observations, thoughts, feelings and the development of the therapeutic relationship.

Where it fits, supervision can include a perspective from Bodynamic and other body-oriented approaches in which Diana has training. In certain cases the ego functions of Bodynamic can serve as one frame for examining the client's resources, development and difficulties, and the therapeutic work with them.

When therapists look for supervision

• "I do not understand why the work with this client has stalled."
• "I notice strong irritation, helplessness, or a wish to rescue the client."
• "I am not sure the intervention I am considering is the right one."
• "I am finding it hard to hold the boundary in this process."
• "The client carries a heavy traumatic history and I want to judge the pace of the work."

Individual supervision

The individual format allows detailed examination of particular cases and professional questions between supervisor and therapist. A supervision session lasts 90 minutes.

Group supervision

In group supervision participants can present their own cases and take part in examining colleagues' work. That gives access to more than one perspective and allows learning from other people's cases as well as one's own.

The number of participants, the frequency and the conditions for a particular supervision group are published when a new group opens.

Supervision and personal therapy

The therapist's personal responses can be examined in supervision where they bear on the professional work. Where a theme calls for deeper personal work, the place for that is personal psychotherapy rather than supervision.

In independent professional supervision the focus is on understanding and developing the work, not on assessing the therapist.

Qualification

• Supervisor training — Bodynamic International
• Bodynamic International — body psychotherapy
• Neo-Reichian analytic psychotherapy — Institute of Body Psychotherapy

Diana's full professional training →