(Clinical Supervision Essentials) Greenberg, Leslie S. - Tomescu, Liliana Ramona - Supervision Essentials For Emotion-Focused Therapy (2017)
(Clinical Supervision Essentials) Greenberg, Leslie S. - Tomescu, Liliana Ramona - Supervision Essentials For Emotion-Focused Therapy (2017)
(Clinical Supervision Essentials) Greenberg, Leslie S. - Tomescu, Liliana Ramona - Supervision Essentials For Emotion-Focused Therapy (2017)
Focused
Therapy
Clinical Supervision
Essentials Series
Supervision Essentials for Psychodynamic
Psychotherapies Joan E. Sarnat
Supervision Essentials for the Integrative
Developmental Model Brian W. McNeill and Cal D.
Stoltenberg
Supervision Essentials for the Feminist Psychotherapy Model of
Supervision Laura S. Brown
Supervision Essentials for a Systems Approach to
Supervision Elizabeth L. Holloway
Supervision Essentials for the Critical Events in
Psychotherapy Supervision Model
Nicholas Ladany, Myrna L. Friedlander, and Mary Lee Nelson
Supervision Essentials for Existential–Humanistic
Therapy Orah T. Krug and Kirk J. Schneider
Supervision Essentials for Cognitive–Behavioral
Therapy Cory F. Newman and Danielle A.
Kaplan
Supervision Essentials for the Practice of Competency-Based
Supervision Carol A. Falender and Edward P.
Shafranske
Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Leslie S. Greenberg and Liliana Ramona Tomescu
Supervision Essentials for Integrative Psychotherapy
John C. Norcross and Leah M. Popple
supervision of stu
dents who are in training to become therapists.
We give workshops on supervision and consult with supervisors
about their supervision practices. We write and do research on
the topic. To say we eat and breathe supervision might be a little
exaggerated, but only slightly. We are fully invested in the field
and in helping supervisors provide the most informed and helpful
guidance to those learning the profession. We also are
committed to helping supervisees/ consultees/trainees become
better collaborators in the supervisory endeavor by
understanding their responsibilities in the supervisory process.
What is supervision? Supervision is critical to the practice of
therapy. As stated by Edward Watkins1 in the Handbook of
Psychotherapy Super vision, “Without the enterprise of
psychotherapy supervision, . . . the prac tice of psychotherapy
would become highly suspect and would or should cease to
exist” (p. 603).
Supervision has been defined as
1
Watkins, C. E., Jr. (Ed.). (1997). Handbook of psychotherapy supervision. New York, NY: Wiley.
vii
Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series
2
Bernard, J. M., & Goodyear, R. K. (2014). Fundamentals of clinical supervision (5th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson. 3 Bernard, J. M., & Goodyear, R. K. (2014). Fundamentals of clinical
supervision (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
4
Fouad, N., Grus, C. L., Hatcher, R. L., Kaslow, N. J., Hutchings, P. S., Madson, M. B., . . .
Crossman, R. E. (2009). Competency benchmarks: A model for understanding and measuring
competence in professional psychology across training levels. Training and Education in
Professional Psychology, 3 (4 Suppl.), S5–S26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015832
5
Kaslow, N. J., Rubin, N. J., Bebeau, M. J., Leigh, I. W., Lichtenberg, J. W., Nelson, P. D., . . .
Smith, I. L. (2007). Guiding principles and recommendations for the assessment of
competence. Professional Psychol ogy: Research and Practice, 38, 441–51.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.38.5.441
6
American Psychological Association. (2014). Guidelines for clinical supervision in health
service psychology. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-supervision.pdf
7
American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. (2007). AAMFT approved supervisor
designa tion standards and responsibilities handbook. Retrieved from
http://www.aamft.org/imis15/Documents/ Approved_Supervisor_handbook.pdf
8
British Psychological Society. (2003). Policy guidelines on supervision in the practice of clinical
psychology. Retrieved from
http://www.conatus.co.uk/assets/uploaded/downloads/policy_and_guidelines_on_
supervision.pdf
9
British Psychological Society. (2010). Professional supervision: Guidelines for practice for
educational psychol ogists. Retrieved from
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/educational-psychology/resources/DECP%20Supervision%20 report
%20Nov%202010.pdf
10
Canadian Psychological Association. (2009). Ethical guidelines for supervision in psychology:
Teach ing, research, practice and administration. Retrieved from
http://www.cpa.ca/docs/File/Ethics/ EthicalGuidelinesSupervisionPsychologyMar2012.pdf
viii
Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series
11
American Psychological Association. (2014). Guidelines for clinical supervision in health
service psychology. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-supervision.pdf
ix
Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series
12
Rønnestad, M. H., Orlinsky, D. E., Parks, B. K., & Davis, J. D. (1997). Supervisors of
psychotherapy: Mapping experience level and supervisory confidence. European
Psychologist, 2, 191–201.
13
Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching
and learning in the professions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series
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Foreword to the Clinical Supervision Essentials Series
Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
EFT theory grew out of an integration of client-centered, Gestalt,
and exis tential therapies, viewed through the lens of modern
cognitive and emotion theory. These humanistic/experiential
approaches to psychotherapy had together formed what was
called the third force that swept North America in the 1960s and
1970s as an alternative to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. EFT
has developed beyond these origins by drawing on advances in
emo tion and cognitive science and on psychotherapy change
process research to propose a neohumanistic, process-oriented,
emotion-focused treatment.
EFT drew on Rogers’s view that therapy is effective because the
thera peutic relationship provides an antidote to the introjected
conditions of worth in that clients have the new experience of
being seen, understood, and unconditionally accepted for who
they are as individuals. As client centered theory developed, the
focus expanded beyond the nature of the therapeutic relationship
alone to what occurs in the client in therapy. What became
important, in addition to relational acceptance, was facilitating in
the client a new mode of experiencing. According to Gendlin
(1997), expe riencing is the process of concrete bodily feeling; it
is what happens as we live and constitutes the basic datum of
psychological phenomena. Aware ness of this basic datum was
seen as essential to healthy living. Gendlin
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Definition of Supervision
Supervision is defined as the action or process of watching and
directing what someone does or how something is done and
making certain that everything is done correctly. It involves
directing or overseeing the performance or operation of an
activity and watching over it so as to maintain order.
Bernard and Goodyear (2013), in their definition of
supervision, offered that it is an intervention that is provided by a
senior member of a profession to a junior member or members of
that same profession. Their definition mentions several
components of supervision. First, supervision is an intervention,
and there are unique competencies and skills involved that allow
the supervisor to help the supervisee. Second, supervision is
provided by a clinical supervisor who is more advanced, at least
in some important ways, than the supervisee. Third, supervision
involves a rela tionship that extends over time. An assumption of
supervision is that it will last long enough for some
developmental progress of the supervisee to take place. The
relationship is therefore important. Finally, the supervisor
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Introduction
Supervisor’s Role
In her discrimination model of supervision, Bernard (1997)
proposed three general roles that the supervisor might assume in
responding to the supervisee: (a) the teacher role—the
supervisor takes on the responsibility for determining what
knowledge is required for the supervisee to become more
competent, (b) the counselor role—the supervisor facilitates
explora
tion in addressing the interpersonal or intrapersonal reality of the
super visee, and (c) the consultant role—the supervisor acts as a
resource, but one who encourages the supervisee to trust his/her
own thoughts, insights, and feelings about the work with the
client (Bernard, 1997).
EFT supervision adopts all three of the described roles. First,
teaching, or more specifically, training, is an important part of
EFT supervision as many skills need to be learned in an actual
clinical situation. EFT supervi sion also emphasizes congruence
between the supervisee’s needs and the supervisor’s responses.
Congruence is attained when conditions such as theoretical
orientation matching, task relevance, engagement, and goal
agreement are met. These, in turn, depend on the supervisor’s
ability to trust that the supervisee knows the best direction in
which the supervision should go, and to engage in a
collaborative effort with the supervisee. For example, a beginner
supervisee expresses a general sense of worry about an
upcoming session; the supervisor follows this important lead and
helps the supervisee deepen the experience, put it into words,
and eventually understand its meaning in a new way—this is a
congruent supervision event. On the other hand, an instance of
incongruence would be found, for example, when a trainee has
difficulties with case formulation and the supervisor assumes the
expert role, by providing a diagnosis of the client
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
1
All case material has been altered to protect the confidentiality of all clients and supervisees.
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Introduction
First achieve small things and you will achieve great things
ultimately. —Bidemi Mark-Mordi
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/15966-002
Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy, by L. S. Greenberg and
L. R. Tomescu Copyright © 2017 by the American Psychological Association.
All rights reserved.
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
analytic approach to understand psychotherapeutic change
(Greenberg, 1984) and is supported by the knowledge provided
by the event-based paradigm proposed by Ladany, Friedlander,
and Nelson (2005, 2016). The general description of the model
refers to markers, the task environ
ment, the supervisee process, and task resolution. Moreover, the
main components of EFT supervision (the supervision alliance
and the super visee’s interpersonal skills, technical skills, and
individualization issues) are briefly discussed, with a more
detailed discussion in the following chapters. We hope that this
event-based model will make the supervision map clearer. In
essence, the proposed model is intended as a template for
identifying, understanding, and ultimately studying critical
components in supervision.
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
respect), and the belief that change can occur. Other attitudes
targeted during EFT training and supervision may include
valuing and practicing openness to experience, high tolerance
for ambiguity, and increased self-awareness, as well as social
awareness (e.g., appreciation of diversity and integrity).
7 Supervision focuses on developing skill competencies: (a)
perceptual, conceptual, and intervention skills, (b) expressive
skills (communicating empathy, engaging others, setting
others at ease, establishing rapport, and communicating a
sense of respect), (c) process skills (attuned listening process
diagnostic and formulation skills), and (d) advanced inter
vention skills (skills used in the accomplishment of different
types of therapeutic tasks).
7 Emotional competencies refer to awareness of emotions and
the ability to enable emotion to inform reasoned action. This
involves emotion awareness, emotion utilization, emotion
knowledge, and emotion management. In other words, the
ability to perceive emotions in self and others, the ability to
access and/or generate feelings to facilitate thought, tolerate
affect, understand emotions, and regulate self and others’
emotions to promote growth.
7 Knowledge competencies include not only expert knowledge of
relevant data and theory in EFT and emotion literature, but
most important, knowledge of self and others.
Goals of Supervision
EFT supervision has the following important goals:
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
during supervision. This forms the basis for the technical and
goal-oriented aspects of supervision.
Second, an important issue in EFT supervision is evaluation
of com petence. The supervisee’s learning, growth, and
development take prece dence over formal evaluation of his/her
progress to provide an optimal learning environment. In line with
the belief that every person possesses the internal resources for
growth, and that these seeds need to find fertile ground to grow,
ensuring a safe, facilitative, and creative environment is
necessary for providing the set of tools for the supervisee to
enhance his/ her practice. Moreover, EFT supervision involves
neither a case review nor a surrogate therapy for the supervisee.
The EFT supervisor’s primary roles are to provide support and
gentle guidance, and to further the learn ing of methods of
facilitating client experiencing and emotional process ing.
Supervision is not focused on providing therapy for the
supervisee’s personal issues activated in therapy with the client,
nor does it involve an authoritative, rigid directing of the
supervisee’s approach, as may be the case when implementing
and adhering to some manualized treatments (Ladany et al.,
2005).
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
voice. I wonder what was going on in the moment and what led
to that decision.”
7 Process guiding refers to the EFT supervisor aiming to guide
the process rather than the content. Telling the supervisee
what to do to address the supervisee’s concerns goes against
the principle of task-collaboration and self-development.
Instead, the EFT supervisor provides process guiding
responses involving suggestions on how the supervisee may
work productively on certain therapeutic tasks. As such, the
supervisor may use (a) experiential formulations to help the
supervisee conceptu
alize the client’s issues in experiential terms; (b) bookmarking,
which consists of underscoring a particular experience or task
as being wor thy of future attention and work; (c) experiential
teaching responses that provide information about the nature
of experiencing or treat ment process; (d) structuring task
responses used to help the super visee engage in specific
therapeutic tasks by either proposing a possible task or
offering suggestions on how to engage in or accomplish the
task at hand; and (e) process suggestions, which are coaching
activities intended to encourage the therapists to try specific
interventions in session (e.g., focusing, chair work). For
example, the supervisor may remark that the supervisee is
relying heavily on empathic responses to help the client, and
he may present the following attempt at structuring task
responses: “Although I like the way you convey empathy, I
think you need to use more structure in your responses and
keep our task(s) in mind. You could move to using chair work
to evoke the client emo tions in relation to his loss.” Awareness
homework is sometimes used by the supervisor, who suggests
that the supervisee analyze excerpts of their recorded session
to get a better grasp of the therapeutic micro processes by
identifying, for example, markers, emotional responses in
the client, possible tasks, and corresponding intervention
responses. 7 Experiential presence responses are usually
communicated by attune ment, prizing, authenticity, and
collaboration, and are aimed at fos tering the supervision alliance.
Two other forms of communicating presence, process disclosure
(e.g., communicating the excitement about a certain therapeutic
intervention used by the supervisee) or personal disclosure (e.g.,
using personal and/or professional examples and expe-
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF
THE EMOTION-FOCUSED THERAPY
EVENT-BASED MODEL OF SUPERVISION
This model of EFT supervision, based on the event-based task
analytic paradigm, explains the supervision relationship and
process in a tangible manner. It is intended as a heuristically
appealing and meaningful tool
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
Relational Contact
Supervision always starts with relational contact (see Figure 2.1),
followed by a question of what the supervisee would like the
supervisor to focus
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
A. Supervisee’s
MARKERS TASK
presented difficulty B. Supervision alliance difficulty
Empathic
exploration
Experiential
learning dialogue Modeling
Role-play
Figure 2.1
communicate Rogerian core conditions
•Technical skills:
Improved knowledge
Using new interventions, understanding
client’s core emotions scheme, and
developing a personal intervention style
on, unless more urgent issues emerge from the initial contact.
Generally, but not always, the supervisee is asking for help on
certain points or dif ficulties. Supervision, then, is seen as
involving events in which there is a focus on the behavioral
performance of the supervisee, in the session with the client,
occurring in the specific context of a developed relationship
between the supervisor and the supervisee and occurring at a
specific time in supervision (early, middle, or late). This requires
that tapes of sessions, preferably visual recordings, be used in
all supervision so that the super visee’s actual performance is the
focus of supervision.
Supervision begins with the supervisor’s welcoming of the
supervisee into the supervisory space, creating an amicable and
safe ambiance, and engaging in brief exchanges about the
supervisee’s present context, state
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
Marker Identification
Once contact is made relationally with the supervisee and
preliminary information is gathered, a marker of the supervisee
problem state usually arises early in the supervision session. A
marker of a supervision event involves the supervisee’s
statement or behavior that signals something on which the
supervisee wants to focus. This might be a dilemma that the
supervisee is having (e.g., “Should I focus on chair work or
focusing?”),
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
40
Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
Task Environment
The task environment is formed by the supervisor’s responses at
a marker to engage the supervisee in working on a supervision
task. Such responses may include helping the supervisee to
remain focused on the client’s core issues or teaching the
supervisee the steps needed to resolve a piece of unfinished
business. The supervisor’s performance represents the task envi
ronment. In this step, the supervisee’s intervention or empathic
response on the tape, or the supervisee’s statement of difficulty
to the supervisor, is followed by the supervisor’s guidance;
together, they work on the task in a collaborative manner to
accomplish the desired resolution. In other words, after the
marker is identified on the tape, the supervisor hears or sees
recorded segments of the therapeutic session, thus having a
chance to “directly” witness the interaction between the client
and the therapist and their performances in the session (i.e.,
what the client and super visee actually said, how it was said,
what the ensuing responses were). The supervisor operations of
interest are those responses and interventions made to address
the supervision task.
Supervisee’s Process
To be effective, the supervisor’s interventions need to facilitate
supervisee engagement and developmental processes. Thus, it
is supervisee processes in supervision that are the site of
change; these are more important than what the supervisor
does. Successful supervision depends on the super
visor being able to promote the supervisee’s learning. The
supervisee’s processes are what lead to the acquisition of new
competencies that will enhance his/her clinical skills. These new
competencies may entail new, perceptual, intervention, or
conceptual skills. For example, the super
visee may come to perceptually hear how clients’ vocal quality
changes to indicate that the client is entering into more poignant
experience. This involves the supervisee being able to
acoustically and conceptually dis criminate different patterns of
client vocalization, or the supervisee may come to learn new
ways of helping the client deepen experience by acquir ing the
new skill of how to focus the client on his/her current bodily felt
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Resolution
Finally, the resolution, which represents the successful outcome
or the accomplishment of the supervision task, may build
progressively during, or take place by the end of, the supervision
session (i.e., event). The reso lution of a supervisory event may
take the form of either (a) an improved supervision alliance with
active and productive engagement in the super vision relationship
by both people or (b) enhanced interpersonal skills (e.g., more
present, with better empathy, warmth, positive regard and con
gruence) or improved technical skills (e.g., being able to use new
interven tions, understanding the client’s core emotions).
Successful supervision sessions result in a new
understanding; an integration of perceptions, understandings,
attitudes, and skills; a plan for action; and so forth. The
supervisee develops, refines, and implements new skills in one
of the following areas: therapeutic alliance (the supervisee
becomes more able to engage actively and productively in the
therapeu
tic relationship), perceptual skills (the supervisee sees client
performance and experience in new ways), case formulation (the
supervisee develops an insightful understanding of client’s
themes and working model), inter vention skills (the supervisee is
more able to use new interventions in a timely, fluent, and
creative manner), or personalization (the supervisee feels
encouraged and inspired to grow). For example, a supervision
reso lution may take the form of an experiential, new
understanding by the supervisee of the client’s depressive
organization, seeing how secondary feelings of hopelessness
and sadness may cover underlying anger, and
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Essential Dimensions of the EFT Model of Supervision
T he three main areas of focus in the process of supervision are (a) the
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/15966-003
Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy, by L. S. Greenberg and
L. R. Tomescu Copyright © 2017 by the American Psychological Association.
All rights reserved.
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
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The Process of Supervision
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
SUPERVISION OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
The supervisee needs to develop interpersonal skills to form and
maintain a strong therapeutic alliance with clients (skills of
relating) and to be pres ent and empathic (skills of being), which
involves being in the moment, being empathically attuned to
affect, communicating empathy to the cli ents, and responding
with sensitive responsiveness. This helps create a warm,
validating climate that invites clients to explore themselves and
their lives and collaborate on goals and tasks to create a sense of
working together to overcome the client’s problems. Many
supervisee perceptual skills are needed here, as they are the
basis of responsiveness and affect attunement, whereas the
therapeutic presence is a requirement for per ceiving what is
happening here and now.
Therapeutic Presence
One of the fundamental tasks of supervision is related to
enhancing the therapist’s presence and use of the core
conditions of empathy, uncon ditional positive regard, and
genuineness. Geller and Greenberg (2011) saw the therapist’s
presence as a precondition for therapist attunement and
responsiveness, as it allows for a particular kind of sensing,
seeing, and listening to the client that then promotes a response
that is attuned to the client’s present moment. To facilitate this
form of responsiveness the supervisor is continually helping the
supervisee see what is going on nonverbally and to respond.
Therapeutic presence is defined as bringing one’s whole self
into the encounter with the client, being completely in the
moment on a multi plicity of levels: physically, emotionally,
cognitively, and spiritually. Ther apeutic presence involves being
fully immersed in the present moment, without judgment or
expectation, being with and for the client. This involves a
particular way of being by the therapist.
In the initial stage of their professional development, young
therapists first are encouraged to become present by observing
and listening to their client’s moment-by-moment process. During
supervision, the supervisee further learns how to help the client
identify and symbolize his/her own
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The Process of Supervision
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Therapist (on video): If you could just sort of get a sense of her.
What’s it like for you to see her, what happens [for you]?
Client (on video): I feel sadness. But it’s not . . . well I’m sad for
her. I’m sad for her because I realize I don’t actually feel sad or
shame or guilt about my feelings. I guess I loved you but it was
very difficult for me to express that because I wasn’t sure, and
also there were things about you that I found creepy.
Supervisor: This is really interesting because he’s actually
naming a fair number of feelings for someone who’s more
rational. But first when he said, “I love you” I thought it might be
helpful to amplify that and say “say it again” but now he’s coming
up with “creepy” and that’s very strong. It would be good to
reflect and explore that.
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The Process of Supervision
Therapist (on video): We’re in this together and I’m here. And is
there another feeling [that you are] afraid somehow that if [you]
walk away this may actually be [your] only chance?
Client (on video): Yeah, I really feel that.
Therapist (on video): You really feel that. So that if [you] walk
away then [you are] letting go of any option.
Supervisor: That’s a really good empathic conjecture. She didn’t
just say it but you are sort of feeling into it and getting the
essences—“I’m afraid.”
Therapist (on video): What happens to you when you hear that
[your mother wants you to be a good boy]?
Client (on video): Um . . . It would be interesting if I heard that.
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The Process of Supervision
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SUPERVISION ESSENTIALS FOR EMOTION-FOCUSED THERAPY
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The Process of Supervision
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
the question “So what is the client’s core emotion scheme or core
wound?” and the supervisee and supervisor discuss this in a
collaborative manner and try to get the client to arrive at “If I was
myself, I wouldn’t be accept able.” This then appears to be a core
shame-based organization of not being acceptable. This guides
the therapist, who listens for this as they pro ceed. In addition to
following the pain, the focus is on identifying markers for
intervention to get at the pain and its source. Thus when markers
of self-criticism or unresolved feelings toward significant others
arise, work ing on them helps get to the core maladaptive feeling.
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Supervision Essentials for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Decisional Conflict
The client, a 28-year-old woman, is working on a decisional
conflict split: whether to go to a new job or stay in her existing
job. The supervisor and the supervisee are watching a video of
the supervisee’s therapy session with the client in his private
practice. The client says, “If I go I don’t know how it’s gonna be,
[but] on the other hand I’ve got a job, and I have admin
istrative and practical work. I have to think about it, because on
one hand it’s good [and] on the other is bad. It’s complicated.”
The therapist at this point invites the client to engage in a two-
chair dialogue and has the client sit in the one chair while giving
direction of what to say from the other:
Therapist (on video): Can you tell her, on one hand it’s good
[and] on the other it’s bad? Tell her also this “always is
complicated”?
Supervisor: Okay. Good. You are getting that there is a split but
now you need to get more differentiated about what each part is
saying. Right now you’ve restated that there is a conflict but you
need to identify the two voices clearly and set them up in a
dialogue. What are the two parts, [what are] the two voices?
Supervisee: I see, yes, one part is saying “go,” the other “I’m reluctant.”
Client (on video): Yes, hmm, okay, on one hand if you go to
England you might be really happy, but it might be not as
wonderful as it seems, day after day, a lot of work during the day
and you [might] end up being really tired. Here it’s the same.
Perhaps you are now happy with
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The Process of Supervision
the job, but after some weeks you might start to get tired because
it’s always the same.
Supervisor: Good. Fortunately, the client identifies the two
voices herself and begins speaking in the cautioning voice.
Therapist (on video): It’s always the same “you’re going to get
tired,” isn’t it? Client (on video): Yeah.
Therapist (on video): Tell her.
Supervisor: Good you are supporting this voice.
Client (on video): Yeah, you’re going to get tired, and you have
to think about it. You really don’t know what it will be like.
Anything could hap pen. It’s unclear.
Therapist (on video): Very well, change if you will. How do you
feel when you hear this, “you’re gonna get tired, you don’t know
what it will be like”?
Client (on video): I would say, “Let me alone, you’re
such a pest.” Therapist (on video): Tell her. Tell her.
Supervisor: Good. Yes, support her assertion, but the goal is not
to get her to assert at this point but to get to her core painful
emotion of anxious insecurity. So it is best to say or ask first
“what do you feel in your body.”
Client (on video): Leave me alone, You’re a pain in
the neck? Therapist (on video): What do you feel
when you say this? Client (on video): Like a
freedom, a relief.
Therapist (on video): Say it to this part of you, it’s like “I need to
post pone, let me alone, I need to postpone my decisions
because I need to feel okay” can you express it to her?
Client (on video): Yes, but I think it’s not good, because I should
say (snaps her fingers), like that.
Supervisor: Okay, so now it’s shifting to a more general process
of her postponing and that’s okay, but you need again to get the
two sides clear.
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