Dialectical Tensions Supervisor Attitudes and Contextual Influences in Psychotherapy Supervision

Psychotherapy supervision is a complex process; supervisors must concurrently balance multiple roles, such as teacher, counselor and consultant. The current paper proposes four “dialectical tensions” inherent in supervision which, if attended to, can guide supervisor behavior during the supervision session. Specifically, supervision requires balancing the following polarities: (1) promote change/provide support, (2) provide feedback/maintain relationship, (3) supervisee-directed/supervisor-directed, and (4) client focus/supervisee development focus. We discuss these dialectical tensions in a contextual framework, and we propose that supervisor awareness, intention and willingness are necessary to incorporate contextual factors and balance the dialectical tensions during supervisory interactions. We present two examples of supervisory interactions and describe how attention to the dialectical tensions can guide supervisory decisions.     

Some Thoughts on Supervision

Quite often we have the experience that adolescents do not accept an offer of treatment, in spite of the fact that they feel miserable. Or, that they do start in treatment and then change their minds and break off contact. The author reflects about factors and conditions contributing to these analytic failures. He discusses elements of analytic method, setting, neutral position, analytic relationship, and how the frames are put under pressure in work with adolescents. He thereafter presents some vignettes and examples of analytic work, where intuitive interventions and interpretations appear against a background of ordinary psychoanalytic method. For the analyst, these interventions can feel unexpected, incidental, like ideas out of the blue. On second thoughts, we may sometimes be able to trace and understand how these intuitions are based on non-conscious processes, like counter-transference feelings, an understanding of the patient still unclear and unarticulated for the analyst or perhaps a last desperate attempt to reach the patient and get in contact at a decisive or critical moment. Finally, the author reflects on the double face of psychoanalysis: both a contemplated, carefully described and systematic method and a craft with elements of intuition, creativity and, sometimes, inspiration.     

Some Thoughts on the Integration of Narrative and Humanistic/Existential Approaches to Psychotherapy

Although humanistic and narrative approaches to psychotherapy make some different assumptions about the nature of the human condition and emphasize different aspects of human functioning in their therapeutic endeavors, I argue here that the underlying assumptions of these two approaches reflect a common view of humanness, thus making these two approaches candidates for attempts at integration. Four areas of commonality are discussed in detail: (a) life as a process of continual development, (b) the nature of experience and the process of meaning creation, (c) the nature of psychological dysfunction, and (d) the nature and importance of human relationships. The implications of these commonalities for the practice of therapy from an integrated perspective are explored in an extended case example.     

Some Aspects of Empathy in the Process of Psychotherapy: Learning from Indian Tradition

This article focuses on some practices in Indian tradition as interventions for enhancing empathy among aspiring psychotherapists. In this venture, author after briefly looking into the evolution of pro-social behavior, it defines basic nature of bond formation between therapist and client, and then summarizes findings of studies on Eastern meditational practices in the context of empathy. Since there is not much convincing evidence that meditational practices enhanced empathy in psychotherapists, the suggestion is to explore other processes in the Indian tradition. Intuition (pratibha) and holistic learning (vyutpatti) are among those processes, respectively, for journeys into the inner world and interventions at community level. They are pragmatic ways to sensitize the aspiring psychotherapists.     

Psychotherapy Supervision Since 1909: Some Friendly Observations About its First Century

Now a century old, psychotherapy supervision occupies a place of increasing prominence across all mental health disciplines and appears to generally be regarded as a (if not the) sine qua non for the teaching and learning of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy supervision has emerged as our “signature pedagogy.” In this paper, I take a look back at supervision’s last century and consider some (but by no means all) of the salient issues and themes that have defined its science and practice. The reviewed supervision issues and themes include the following: (1) the beginnings and evolution of supervision and supervision theory; (2) our evolving perspective about the supervision matrix; (3) methodological pluralism and diversity; (4) “good” and “bad” supervisor behaviors and the working alliance; (5) measurement; (6) effectiveness; (7) diversity; and (8) education. I use this “look back” to (1) give voice to where we have been and where we are now in psychotherapy supervision and (2) shine a light on some of what seems to lie ahead for supervision’s second century.     

对临床药学发展的几点思考

经过30余年的探索与实践,我国的临床药学发展已初具规模,其开展的必要性和重要性得到社会各界的肯定。但就开展程度而言,临床药学仍为一门年轻的学科,其内容和体系均凾待完善。在回顾过去,总结经验教训的基础上,我们有针对性地提出了一些关于临床药学体系建设的建议,期望对我国临床药学工作的全面开展有所帮助。     

对临床药学发展的几点思考

经过30余年的探索与实践,我国的临床药学发展已初具规模,其开展的必要性和重要性得到社会各界的肯定.但就开展程度而言,临床药学仍为一门年轻的学科,其内容和体系均函待完善.在回顾过去,总结经验教训的基础上,我们有针对性地提出了一些关于临床药学体系建设的建议,期望对我国临床药学工作的全面开展有所帮助.     

Some Thoughts on Ego Development and Counseling

Loevinger responds to Swensen on (a) the exact number of stages in ego development (or any other stage theory) (b) the importance of considering the client's ego level and that of counseling students (c) the need for more research on the optimum level for the counselor in relation to the client, and (d) the aims of therapy and psychoanalysis.     

心理治疗中的循证实践及其哲学思考

心理治疗中的循证实践是指治疗者根据个体已有的临床技能与经验,利用最佳的研究证据,在考虑病人人格、文化及偏好等因素的情况下进行的心理治疗实践。通过描述心理治疗中循证实践运动发展的两个阶段,考察其哲学基础及存在的问题,对其发展趋势及对整个心理学发展的意义进行了展望。     

积极心理治疗思想概要

积极心理治疗虽然是以积极心理学作为自己的理论基础,但积极心理治疗的实践却早已有之。积极心理治疗作为心理治疗中的一个新生事物．它以反传统医学式心理治疗的面貌出现,运用故事作为治疗者与病人之间的媒介,充分发挥病人的直觉和想象,在与病人的观念不发生直接冲突的情况下提出改变病人观点的建议,这一较符合人性特点的心理疗法正越来越多地受到社会的广泛关注。     

The Beginnings of Psychoanalytic Supervision: The Crucial Role of Max Eitingon

Psychoanalytic supervision is moving well into its 2nd century of theory, practice, and (to a limited extent) research. In this paper, I take a look at the pioneering first efforts to define psychoanalytic supervision and its importance to the psychoanalytic education process. Max Eitingon, the “almost forgotten man” of psychoanalysis, looms large in any such consideration. His writings or organizational reports were seemingly the first psychoanalytic published material to address the following supervision issues: rationale, screening, notes, responsibility, supervisee learning/personality issues, and the extent and length of supervision itself. Although Eitingon never wrote formally on supervision, his pioneering work in the area has continued to echo across the decades and can still be seen reflected in contemporary supervision practice. I also recognize the role of Karen Horney—one of the founders of the Berlin Institute and Poliklinik, friend of Eitingon, and active, vital participant in Eitingon’s efforts—in contributing to and shaping the beginnings of psychoanalytic education.     

Internal Supervision: A Metamodel for the Clinician,Supervisor, and Practice-Researcher

No abstract available for this article.     

Supervisor Workplace Stress and Abusive Supervision: The Buffering Effect of Exercise

Purpose

We examine how supervisor stress is associated with employee-rated abusive supervision. In addition, we test the premise that higher levels of physical exercise by supervisors can buffer the negative effects of stress on their relationship with their subordinates.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A matched sample of 98 employed individuals and their direct supervisors was used to test our hypotheses.

Findings

Results suggest that increased levels of supervisor-reported stress are related to the increased experience of employee-rated abusive supervision. We also find that the relationship between supervisor stress and abusive behavior can be diminished when supervisors engage in moderate levels of physical exercise.

Implications

While the current economic conditions and a host of other trying workplace factors mean that supervisors are likely to experience workplace stress, we found evidence that they do not necessarily have to transfer these frustrations onto those they supervise. Our study supports a link between supervisor stress and employee perceptions of abusive supervision, but this is a link that can be loosened if supervisors engage in moderate levels of physical exercise.

Originality/Value

The results of this study add to the modest number of antecedents to abusive supervision that have been discovered in existing research. In addition, this is the first study to examine how exercise can buffer the relationship between supervisor stress and employee perceptions of abusive supervision.     

Supervision in the Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia: Awareness of and Mutual Reflection upon Fragmentation

Historical and newly emerging models of schizophrenia suggest it is a disorder characterized by the fragmentation of the experience of the self and the world, leading to the interruption of how a unique life is unfolding in the world. It has been proposed that psychotherapy might therefore promote recovery by facilitating the development of a greater ability to integrate information about the self and others. In this paper we explore how the supervision of a metacognitively-oriented psychotherapy can assist therapists to experience and conceptualize fragmentation within sessions, join patients in the gradual process of making sense of their psychiatric problems and life challenges, and ultimately envision and achieve recovery. Common challenges and responses within supervision are described and discussed.

     

Some Beginnings of Word Comprehension in 6-Month-Olds

Previous studies of infants' comprehension of words estimated the onset of this ability at 9 months or later. However, these estimates were based on responses to names of relatively immobile, familiar objects. Comprehension of names referring to salient, animated figures (e.g., one's parents) may begin even earlier. In a test of this possibility, 6-month-olds were shown side-by-side videos of their parents while listening to the words "mommy" and "daddy." The infants looked significantly more at the video of the named parent. A second experiment revealed that infants do not associate these words with men and women in general. Infants shown videos of unfamiliar parents did not adjust their looking patterns in response to "mommy" and "daddy."     

Family Life Around Screens: Some Thoughts on the Impact of ICTs on Psychological Development and the Development of Relationships

ICTs mediate family life even before children are born, from the moment that future parents post their foetus’s ultrasound image on social media. Based on theories and research on the impact of ICTs on psychological development and the development of relationships, this paper attempts to outline the new mediated context within which today’s children are born and grow. The discussion is set around two main properties of ICTs, closely interwoven with the everyday life of children and their families: (i) the oversupply of (globally) pre-constructed homogeneous images and information diffused by all kinds of screens, which occupy mental space and often surpass the child’s cognitive and emotional capacity to handle, and (ii) the new form of mediated relationships promoted by ICTs, where the other is physically absent. The discussion is focused on the impact that ICTs instill on emotional and cognitive development, and the development of relationships.     

Transference-Love and Institutional Involvement in a Case of Psychotherapy Supervision

Transference-love in supervision remains a relatively unexplored subject in psychotherapy. This article describes and analyzes an incident of the supervision of a student whose dress code raised a question regarding the existence of transference-love. The role of the institution in maintaining a protective envelope is shown to be significant in the satisfactory resolution of what appeared to have been an impasse. In addition, multicultural and gender issues are examined to illustrate the complexity of the subject.     

Group Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Some Neurodermatoses

The relation of patient verbal activity to pretherapy symptom status and outcome was examined for ninety patients in time-limited group psychotherapy. For each half-hour segment the most verbally active member, or main actor (MA), was identified. Verbal activity was measured by counting the number of times each patient was MA during the course of the group. Outcome was assessed by administering a battery of instruments pre- and posttherapy and by obtaining direct ratings of patient benefit from the patient, therapist, and an independent rater: the number of times MA was found to be significantly correlated with four pretherapy measures, indicating that the most disturbed patients were most active in these group; the number of times MA was also correlated with patient and therapist benefit ratings, indicating that therapists and patients themselves agreed that those who spoke the most benefited the most. However, partial correlations between number of times MA and other outcome measures did not produce any significant relationships. Thus, it does not appear that patient verbal activity is related to outcome, as measured by objective instruments.