The Supervisory Alliance: Facilitating the Psychotherapist's Learning Experience

Supervision has shifted from an authoritarian, didactic model to a relational one. The interpersonal dynamics between supervisor and supervisee are now seen as central to the development of a productive learning experience. As supervisors are becoming more sensitive to their trainee's vulnerability and anxiety, new frameworks for understanding and dealing with this shift are required. This book presents current thinking on such relevant issues as creating an optimal learning environment, establishing a safe space, developing an atmosphere of reflectivity, attuning oneself to the emotional experience of the supervisee, and encouraging the disclosure of the supervisee's countertransference.

Susan Gill, Ph.D., C.S.W., is a supervisor and faculty member in the Adult Training Program of the Psychoanalytic Institute of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center, and is a supervisor at the Washington Square Institute for Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Dr. Gill has published and presented clinical papers on working with resistance, transference, projective identification, and sexual abuse. In 1997, she received Postgraduate Center’s Emanual K. Schwartz Memorial Award for writing on psychoanalytic supervision. Before becoming a psychoanalyst, Dr. Gill received a Ph.D. in art history and taught at Parson’s School of Design and Hunter College. She was a frequent contributor to art journals and co-authored the book Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen. She maintains a private practice in New York City.

How do psychotherapists continue to learn their craft? By treating patients, of course_but without supervision, therapists may find themselves enmeshed in emotional encounters with patients that may be unclear, undirected, and unhelpful. Proper supervision, though, can help therapists learn more about their patients, themselves, and the interaction between the two. Supervisors, too, must learn their craft_and this valuable book helps supervisors and supervisees think more psychodynamically about what happens in supervision. Issues such as the superviseeOs internalizations of the supervisor, impasses, gender roles, personal styles, and different needs of the supervisor and supervisee are opened up in this wide-ranging, timely book.

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