On the Use of Reflection in Supervision

Abstract

Analytic supervision may be described as a space in which two types of reflection upon clinical-analytic material are made possible for the supervisee: reflection-after-action and reflection-in-action. The latter is increasingly employed in supervision by psychodynamic therapists, since there is now a greater understanding of the importance of non-verbal and action oriented authentic communications in the analytical interaction. These communications require immediate, in the moment consideration, reflection and authentic response by analytic therapists. This reflection is claimed to conceptually combine the authentic-human and the planned and weighed analytic-clinical.

The Operators Model of Psychoanalytic Clinical Reasoning

“…This would also be an opportunity to test whether our model, which has been developed on the basis of supervision sessions, actually generalizes to therapy sessions. While there is reason to believe that the conceptual and reflective skills that are mobilized by an analytic therapist during supervision are comparable with the ones that are mobilized during therapy (Yerushalmi 2012), this assumption needs to be substantiated by further research. Furthermore, it would be important to consider whether a recall taking place immediately after the session would help obtain more reliable accounts of the CR process (Caspar 1997).…”

Reflective supervision: The symbolic hands that hold.

“…Thus, in such contexts, it becomes increasingly important to continuously reflect on and in some ways normalize this as a shared experience. The frame of supervision mitigates this by being a space to think and not act (Yerushalmi, 2013).…”