On Clinical Supervision and Consultation: Psychological “Vital Signs” and Individuality in Supervisory Relationships

Although supervision and consultation are critical in ongoing processes in psychodynamic work, there has been comparatively little literature on supervision from a psychoanalytic perspective. Both psychoanalytic organizations and general professional groups in psychology, psychiatry, and social work have recently emphasized the value of mentorship and have urged training programs to offer courses in supervision. But most graduate courses on the topic have relied on models premised on the development of “competencies” or the acquisition of specific skills. This program will instead emphasize more foundational processes, including how to help therapists monitor certain vital signs of overall progress in their patients and how to welcome and make supervisory use of individual differences between therapist and mentor. This conference is designed for social workers, psychologists, mental health professionals, and psychiatrists.  All levels of training are welcome.

Learning objectives: After this program, participants will be able to:

1.     Articulate three orienting values that inform psychoanalytic supervision;

2.     Distinguish between skills-training models and overall professional growth models;

3.     Describe two recurring tensions that have characterized psychoanalytic supervision over the past decades;

4.     Enumerate five “vital signs” of overall therapeutic progress in patients that supervisors help therapists to monitor;

5.     Account for empirical findings documenting the high frequency of supervisees’ keeping secrets from supervisors;

6.     Discuss the supervisory implications of three personality styles characterizing therapist and supervisor, respectively.

7.     Discuss two supervisory implications of differences between supervisor and supervisee along such dimensions as age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, spirituality, ability/disability, socioeconomic status, and other possible aspects of individuality.