Supervisory Reactions: An Important Aspect of Supervision

Abstract

Anne Alonso was passionate about the practice of supervision. An excellent supervisor herself, she sought to identify and teach the ingredients of effective supervision throughout her career. Her first book, The Quiet Profession (1985), was about the supervisory relationship and the various influences on it from within and without the relationship, and she insisted that the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies training program that she directed for many years include a required course on supervision. While the usual focus in supervision is on the supervisee and the clinical material presented, supervisors often experience powerful emotional reactions. Sometimes this is parallel process, in which the dynamics of the psychotherapy are replayed in the supervisory relationship. However, many other sources can contribute to supervisory affect, including the personality, background, and developmental stage of the supervisor, the impact of the clinical material, and the setting in which the supervision takes place. Supervisory reactions can be informative about the psychotherapy being supervised, about the supervisory relationship, or about the supervisor. Supervisors need self-awareness in order to identify their own contribution to their affective responses in supervision. The use of a supervisor decision tree of 1) awareness of reaction, 2) identification of its source, 3) relevance to current supervision, and 4) appropriate use of the reaction in the current supervision is recommended.

Supervisory Assistance in Organization: Basis for Enhanced Instructional Supervision for Teachers

“…Teachers' reactions vary from positive to negative, encompassing resistance to change and general acceptance for many who see instructional supervision as a means to improve learning processes (Counselman & Abernethy, 2011). However, the study stressed that teachers can maintain consistent and challenging expectations for all students by utilizing ongoing information on achievement.…”

Using Motivational Interviewing Techniques to Address Parallel Process in Supervision

“…Specifically, a supervisor may become aware that a counselor (supervisee) shifts to unconscious identification with a client and begins responding in a manner similar to how the counselor may feel in counseling sessions. Thus, it is important for supervisors to consider their own reactions within the dynamics of the supervisory process, as well as the content of supervision (Counselman & Abernethy, 2011;Morrissey & Tribe, 2001;Nelson, Barnes, Evans, & Triggiano, 2008).…”

“…He stated that supervisors' awareness of their emotional responses to counselors-and the knowledge that these feelings could be reflections of the counselor-client relationshipis critical to recognizing parallel process. Therefore, supervisors must be in tune with their own affective reactions in supervision and assess whether their emotions are providing insight into the counseling relationship (Counselman & Abernethy, 2011;Morrissey & Tribe, 2001;Nelson et al, 2008). Other signs that parallel process may be occurring are atypical behaviors exhibited by the counselor in supervision, changes in the supervisory relationship, and difficulties or impasses in counseling dynamics between the counselor and client (Deering, 1994;Sachs & Shapiro, 1976).…”