This study investigated the supervision process from the supervisee's viewpoint. A phenomenological methodology was employed in order to allow the supervisee's lived experience to emerge, uncontaminated by a particular theoretical bias. Open-ended, audiotaped interviews were conducted with post-Master's supervisees in counselor education, social work, and clinical psychology. Descriptive data on both positive and negative supervision experiences were thus obtained and analyzed separately according to a rigorous set of steps aimed at phenomenological reduction.The final results showed that positive and negative supervision are not opposites but that each has its own unique structure. These results indicated that a facilitative relationship is a necessary-but not sufficient-condition for positive supervision, and that effective supervision integrates both task-and person-oriented behavior. By contrast, the emotional focus in negative supervision is on the relationship, with its negative impact preventing the supervisee's professional learning needs from being met. It is suggested that the variables which differentiated positive from negative experiences in supervision could be used to develop a scale for evaluating the quality of supervision in the helping professions.