The author reviews the literature on supervision and the use of autoethnography as a research method. On this basis she then explores her own ideas for improving cultural reflexivity within models of supervision, with a particular focus on transactional analysis. She suggests that supervisory practice could be enhanced by being aware of the elliptical spaces between personal identity and the professional role, between supervisor and supervisee, and between both individuals and their cultural worlds. Transactional analysis, with its focus on cocreated interactions, offers an opportunity for mutual reflexivity and the application of this elliptical approach.
KeywordsTransactional analysis supervision, reflexivity, culture, ellipses, autoethnography, psychotherapy, counseling, anthropologyThe ellipsis is a grammatical tool (…) used in English to show a pause or silence and to indicates the omission or suppression of a word or phrase. As used in modern social technologies, it represents hesitation, intention, or suspension. I use the concept of ellipsis (Clagett, 1959, p. 197) to express a number of statistical, linguistic, and social phenomena whereby the missing material can potentially be recovered through the supervision process. The ellipsis operates from intuition and can offer a potential source for reciprocity. I use it as a metaphor for the kinds of spaces that emerge in supervision and that are especially important to engage in reflectively in supervision that is open and sensitive to cross-cultural differences.Autoethnography a is a form of self-reflection and writing that explores the researcher's personal experience and connects this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. As a research method, it is used widely in anthropology as a way of looking at the self in relation to others in a cultural context (Ellis, 2004). It offers an opportunity "to uncover, record, interpret and position, from an insider's perspective and experience, the processes supervisors use" (Stewart, 2001-online article) For me, it seems a useful tool for exploring my own position as supervisor and supervisee.Supervision is a multifacted process based on evidence-based practice, which makes it challenging to both learn and impart as a skill. I am suggesting it should incorporate a range of types of research evidence that are valuable in the practice of counseling and psychotherapy (McDonnell, 2011). However, insufficient attention has been given to the cultural aspects of supervision. I will describe a model of cultural reflexivity that can be used to enhance our understanding of the supervisory role within supervision in general and how it can be used in transactional analysis (TA) supervision in particular. I aim to explore the "foundations and assumptions" (Jones & Mehr, 2007, p766) of the psychotherapy supervision in the hope that doing so will guide counseling and psychotherapy research and metasynthesis so as to better inform practice decisions around supervision.H...