Routledge Clinical Supervision of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

In Clinical Supervision of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, psychotherapy supervisors from the fields of psychology, psychiatry, social work, and dance movement therapy deal with the ambiguity and complexity of the supervisory role. They attend to the need to establish open, respectful verbal and non-verbal communication, a trusting relationship, a shared language, and a commitment to examining unconscious conflict in the supervisory encounter as well as the patient-therapist dynamics. The contributors show how the supervisor makes room for the supervisee to express her anxieties without becoming her therapist, thereby providing a model for empathic listening but within appropriate boundaries. They also describe the many ways in which the therapist's issues reflect or are triggered by those of the patient, are further reflected in the dynamics of the supervisory pair, and in the institution where supervisee and supervisor work. Review " 'Good enough' supervision offers much more than the management of a trainee's progress towards qualification as a professional psychotherapist. The contributions to this highly readable and instructive text show that it can be therapeutic for all the parties involved in it. In dyads as well as small groups, supervision nourishes the sponsoring institution and contributes to the development of more sophisticated and appropriate training programmes. Especially valuable is the evidence that such supervision can be provided via several forms of modern communications technology. This book is a timely reminder of how important it is to have comprehensive courses for training our supervisors."--Earl Hopper, PhD, psychoanalyst, group analyst, and organisational consultant "To encourage more psychoanalytic institutes and psychotherapy organisations to commence training of supervisors, Jill Savege Scharff and her colleagues at the International Psychotherapy Institute have written this fascinating analysis of the theory and practice of supervision. Taken together, the various chapters exemplify the basic idea that the most creative way to supervise is to have very clear frames and a conscious agreement between supervisee and supervisor as to how they shall work and evaluate each other. Helping the trainee to reflectively review the context and the meaning of the therapeutic interaction, as well as connecting his or her own reactions with the patient's activity and communications, can be considered the primary task of supervision. The book encourages trainees to focus on the supervisor-therapist-patient gestalt in order to create a truly transformative learning situation."--Imre Szecsody, training analyst and supervisor "This volume is a sophisticated font of useful information. Profiting from the insight born of decades of supervisory experience, Jill Savege Scharff has gathered an international group of clinicians who offer views helpful to those beginning to supervise as well as to those interested in the complex issues involved in the process. It will surely become the standard text on the subject."--Shelley R. Doctors, PhD, President of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and past Secretary About the Author Jill Savege Scharff