A Challenging Safety: Further Thoughts about Catharsis

Abstract

“The feeling that death is inevitable comes to us from ordinary experience; the feeling that life is inevitable comes to us from myth and fable. The latter is therefore both more true and more important.”

Fairy tales, landscapes and metaphor in supervision: An exploratory study

“…Playing with beliefs, values, labels and hypotheses about the client helped the supervisee/participant to hold more loosely to their ideas about the client. However the use of fairy tales and the more indirect approach to supervision paradoxically brings the supervisee/participant closer to their experience, revealing truths that had the potential to remain hidden (Grainger, 1999).…”

A Heuristic Model of Supervision Using Small Objects to Develop the Senses

“…Focusing the supervisee on the specific details of the object helps the supervisee engage more deeply with their present experience, much like the actor pays attention to detailing of a character that helps make it more real and bring it to life [54,55].The process of supervision is about bringing the supervisee's experience into the present moment. By focusing and detailing the object distance is created that helps to create safety, but paradoxically one comes closer to one's experience [56]. The utilization of small objects helps create aesthetic distance from the therapeutic work, creating a meta perspective so the supervisee and supervisor can make a "direct observation" of the therapeutic process through the imagery used in supervision [57].…”