The Interplay Between Therapy and Supervision

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship and interplay between therapy and supervision; and how the therapist who has particular similarities to the patient brings her own armentarium of defenses as well as life problems into the therapeutic and supervisory space. The paper explores how unconscious factors from childhood become reenacted in the therapeutic space and produce emotions that affect both patient and therapist. The paper describes in detail an upward as well as downward parallel process acted out by the therapist and patient in the transference–countertransference encounter along with the supervisor's conscious and unconscious role in this process. The paper concludes by offering recommendations to beginning analytic therapists.