Body Psychotherapy and the Body in Supervision – Interview for CONFER (2013)

MM — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 06:25:41 +0000

In this interview, Jane Ryan from CONFER was asking Michael about Body Psychotherapy, the role of the body in our emotional lives, and the body in supervision, in preparation for the upcoming event in the series ‘LIVE SUPERVISION – THE BODY’ which Michael has entitled: ‘The Fractal Self in Supervision’.

“Live supervision is an ideal context for illustrating a key feature of enactment: like a bar of soap in the bath, it is elusive. It shape-shifts between multiple self-states, different people, various levels of experience and awareness (somatic, emotional, mental). The harder I grasp and try to pin it down, the more likely it is to slip from my grip. But in the group context, it is then likely to slip into somebody else, and specifically into somebody else’s bodymind process. By attending both to the relational and the bodymind field in the group context, there may be a way in this session to demonstrate the following principle: ‘The more levels of parallel process can be held in awareness in the here and now, the more likely it is that transformative containment of enactment can occur’. Michael will illustrate how he extends the notion of parallel process to both interpersonal (transference-countertransference) processes as well as intra-psychic (body-mind) processes.”

Listen to the audio-file (.mp3)

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The Main 5 Conflicting Aspects of the Supervisor Role (2015)

Michael - Handouts — Mon, 11 May 2015 23:00:00 +0000

This handout was put together after supervision teaching session in June 2015, trying to clarify the various tasks and aspects of the supervisor role, which supervisee's expect or project. They are all in various degrees of tension and conflict with each other, and whilst only two of them may be considered legitimately part of 'supervision proper', in practice they all do come in at times and may support and complement on the one hand or conflict and interfere with the work of supervision on the other. The supervisory role inevitably contains two conflicting aspects which are in constant tension with each other: a) as an elder, it is the supervisorâ€s task to maintain client advocacy and to make sure that the supervisee practices within the responsibilities, competencies, ethics and frames which the general public can expect from a practitioner; b) as an elder, it is also the supervisor's task to champion the supervisee's development towards their full potential, mentoring them, watching over them and protecting as well as facilitating them much as a supportive elder sibling would do. So the supervisor needs to champion the interests and welfare of the client as well as the supervisee, and needs to keep operating with an awareness of that triangle. In situations where there is conflict between client and supervisee, the supervisor cannot be expected to be exclusively on the supervisee's side. In that moment, the supervisor becomes like a guardian of the profession, monitoring and challenging the supervisee's lack of professional competency. If there is a complaint by the client against the therapist, it is precisely because of client advocacy that the supervisor is co-responsible for the supervisee's work. At the far end, the supervisor might need to take a position that they cannot ethically support the supervisee's work. These two conflicting roles are necessarily inherent in the supervisor role. There are other roles which the supervisee may project onto the supervisor, which are not - strictly speaking - part of the tasks and role of the supervisor. However, there are certain aspects of the therapist, the assessor, the tutor, and the colleague/peer which inevitably do come into the supervision. All of these to some extent can inform/complement or conflict/interfere with the tasks of supervision. In some organisations clinical and managerial SV are carried out by the same person (because of the inherent conflict between these two roles, usually not a good idea).

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supervision – INTEGRA CPD

Body Psychotherapy and the Body in Supervision – Interview for CONFER (2013)

The Main 5 Conflicting Aspects of the Supervisor Role (2015)