Apprehending the Translucent in the Art of Supervision

Ellis, Sian

doi:10.1111/bjp.12305

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Lastly and very sadly, I have to record the death of our colleague Sian Ellis, of the Association of Group and Individual Therapy, in October last year, after a short illness. Sian was awarded the Rozsika Parker Prize (Post‐Qualification Path) in 2016 for a wonderful paper on supervision (Ellis, ). Like Rosie, Sian died too young, a source of great sadness to all who knew her.…”

Section: Editor's Notementioning

confidence: 99%

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Scott¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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In this issue of the Journal, our regular 'Clinical and Theoretical Practice' strand brings together papers that revisit the foundational work of Winnicott and Segal, providing an opportunity to deepen our thinking around key texts in the field, and perhaps too to consider our individual practice afresh. First, Stewart Gabel argues that Winnicott's 'intermediate area of experiencing, when applied to religious practices, is often appropriately understood as a normal dissociative phenomenon of variable intensity', that is, an alternative level of consciousness 'in which the threshold for usual ego functions…is lowered and universal themes such as the meaning or purpose in life….are elevated'. In a most thoughtful discussion, Gabel discusses a native ritual, a modern religious practice and a clinical vignette to illustrate 'what can be described within a Winnicottian notion of the intermediate area of experience'.Next, Patrick Casement, in a wide-ranging inaugural lecture prepared for the inaugural conference of the Japanese Winnicott Association in 2019, draws a distinction between 'using'or applying -Winnicott's ideas, and 'finding' Winnicott in our clinical work, suggesting that it is 'at those times of finding Winnicott that his ideas most vividly come alive to us'. Acknowledging that Winnicott can at times seem to be 'quite obscure', Casement suggests that even then, 'when we encounter something in clinical practice that touches upon what he is talking about, there is a sense of recognition', a process that he illustrates with examples from Winnicott's practice and from his own.Then, R.D. Hinshelwood offers a searching paper that extends his recent discussion of Segal's theory of symbol-formation in the BJP (Hinshelwood, 2018). He seeks to 'strengthen Segal's claim that there is an important correspondence between the normal definition of a symbol and the way it is used by psychoanalysts trying to understand abnormal functioning', and to identify the 'specific ego-function that was necessary for the human species to develop symbolic representations, the accumulation of knowledge and civilized life'. Recognizing that the idea needs further investigation, Hinshelwood introduces an 'as-if' function that is needed 'in order to use symbols and representation'.Turning now to questions of supervision. Anne Engholm Hedegaard contributes to the debate on rupture and repair in therapeutic work with an experience-near research paper putting forward the idea that 'in group supervision, the supervisory alliance cannot be separated from the group processes in which it is embedded'. Her mixed-method study was undertaken at an outpatient university clinic in Denmark, and showed that group dynamics can affect the supervisory alliance negatively; at the same time, the group can contribute to the repair of the supervisory alliance. Then, Hanoch Yerushalmi explores the internal processes involved, for the supervisor, in formulating a construction of the patient's world, psychic life and pathology. He recommends, making use of Ogde...

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Section: Editor's Notementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sian was awarded the Rozsika Parker Prize (Post-Qualification Path) in 2016 for a wonderful paper on supervision (Ellis, 2017). Sian was awarded the Rozsika Parker Prize (Post-Qualification Path) in 2016 for a wonderful paper on supervision (Ellis, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

Editor's Comments

Scott¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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Dispositional Feedback: Interpersonally Rich and Creative Approaches

Luke,

Rogers

2023

Journal of Creativity in Mental Health

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Interpretive Community, Intersubjective Experiences, and Supervisees’ Paradoxes

Yerushalmi¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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Contemporary theorists believe that each expert's discourse has meaning only in the context of an interpretive community. For therapists, the analytic community serves this purpose, helping them to construct their patients’ experiences and to hold inherent intersubjective paradoxes; the community provides them with a vantage point from which they learn to acknowledge, tolerate, and accept these paradoxes. I will examine the role of this vantage point in holding one of the central paradoxes for therapists: the uniqueness of each therapeutic relationship which urges them to ‘reinvent psychoanalysis’ with each patient, and its similarity to other therapeutic relationships which urges them to draw on the analytic community's theoretical schemas. I will suggest that supervisors help their supervisees in this internal struggle by representing the analytic community's vantage point and by holding a parallel paradox: the uniqueness of each supervisory relationship, which urges them to ‘reinvent’ the theory of supervision for each supervisee, and its similarity to other supervisory relationships, which urges them to draw on the analytic community's theoretical supervisory schemas. Reasonably, the supervisors’ capacity to hold these paradoxes is gradually internalized by their supervisees, facilitating their growth as therapists.

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Apprehending the Translucent in the Art of Supervision

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

Editor's Comments

Editor's Comments

Dispositional Feedback: Interpersonally Rich and Creative Approaches

Interpretive Community, Intersubjective Experiences, and Supervisees’ Paradoxes

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