Supervision In Psychotherapy: What Does It Consist Of?
Supervision in psychotherapy is essential, both for students of psychology and for psychologists starting their careers. This supervision makes it possible to correct errors that the professional may make before their consequences are too serious.
Psychotherapy supervision is an essential part of psychotherapeutic training. As we said previously, it is particularly recommended for psychologists who are just starting out. However, this does not mean that it cannot also benefit the experts. While experience helps to be a better professional, no psychologist is exempt from the need for psychotherapy supervision in some cases.
We will talk to you in this article about supervision in psychotherapy. Thus, step by step, we will discover what it consists of, what it represents and the importance it has for students and professionals. In addition, we will also show you how beneficial it is to be able to rely on supervision in the field of psychotherapy in different environments. Read on!
How does psychotherapy supervision work?
Supervision in psychotherapy consists of the presence of an expert professional whose role is to evaluate the course of therapy as well as the process put in place by the supervisee within the framework of his professional activity. The supervisor then performs a constant review of the therapist’s interventions. Such practice includes exploring aspects of the inner world of the supervising subject. Thus, supervision in psychotherapy addresses cognition, behavior and the affective part.
From a psychoanalytic perspective (branch of psychology where supervision is of great importance), during the intervention around the therapy carried out by the subject, the supervisor:
- Analyze the content of the session
- Evaluates transference and countertransference
- Explore the strategies used by the therapist
- Guides the therapist on the practical and theoretical content
- Acts as a support and structure
- Listens and observes actively
- Encourages the supervisee
- Feed back
- Explore and challenge the supervisee’s assumptions
- Promotes learning
However, this process can be carried out with students as well as professionals.
Students
Supervision is an integral part of the training, so that the student learns how to conduct psychotherapy. The supervisor therefore decides when it is appropriate for the student to get started. In addition, he intervenes if necessary. To prevent the consequences of possible errors, students are assigned cases of lower risk, both for the patient and for the student. Thus, the supervisor will be able to give the supervisee a greater margin without intervening.
Supervision can be carried out in various forms:
- Online: the arrival of new technologies has involved great changes that can translate into benefits. Thus, thanks to various tools, such as Skype, for example, therapeutic supervision can be carried out. Wonderful, isn’t it?
- In Gesell’s room: this is a remedy that is used in psychology to allow third parties to observe an intervention without their presence disturbing and conditioning the course of the therapy. Gesell’s room is a room separated in two by an opaque mirror on one side and transparent on the other. Thus, the supervisor can see what the therapist is doing without participating in a face-to-face manner in the intervention.
- After having carried out an intervention: the supervisee tells his intervention to the supervisor, who then does his work
Professionals
Professionals can use supervision to develop their work. For example, to understand what is going on in therapy or when they don’t feel comfortable, when they don’t know what to do, etc. This allows them to see their intervention from another angle and to know what steps to take.
In addition, some specialties require supervision in psychotherapy, such as psychoanalysis, for example. In fact, in this area, we suggest that the future psychoanalyst was psychoanalysed, and in his analysis, we can speak of the residual product that remains with the analyst, deriving from the interventions he performs.
The benefits of being able to count on supervision in psychotherapy
Therapeutic supervision brings great benefits. Indeed, she:
- Encourages analysis
- Facilitates the process that the patient goes through
- Allows to assimilate knowledge
- Contributes to the professional’s work
- Counts as a point of reference
- Enriches psychotherapeutic practice
- Offers different points of view
- Promotes self-knowledge
- Encourages self-care
- Releases tensions
- Builds empathy
- Protects the patient and the therapist
- Allows you to check concepts
- Promotes empirical learning
However, a certain controversy hangs over supervision. This is what Doctor Héctor Fernández Álvarez suggests in his article; indeed, this author tells us that “the results presented by the research are not yet sufficient to empirically prove that supervision, as it has been applied until now, helps to reinforce the benefits of psychotherapy” . However, most fields devoted to psychotherapy did not participate in this research. This does not negate the subjective feeling that those who submit to supervision may rely on.
On the other hand, it is necessary to underline that supervision is an active process in which knowledge is built. This process is favorable to the supervisee, because of the learning that he draws from it, and to the supervisor, because he is in a situation of constant training in order to be able to provide adequate control.
But how to have access to this supervision? If you are a psychology student, you will probably find a responsible person on your teaching team who can fill this role. However, if you are a professional, then you can contact your more experienced colleagues. On the other hand, today, we can also carry out online supervision; there are various professionals who offer it.
Our thoughts In this article, we would like to present to you the most important therapeutic skills as well as their implication in the therapeutic framework …
