IJSP Number 3, 2021

PLAYING IN CLINICAL SUPERVISION: ENCOURAGING EMOTIONAL HONESTY, FLEXIBILITY, AND RESILIENCE DIMINO John L. 1 1 Director of the Mimesis Center, U.S.A. Emails : jlouisd77@gmail.com Abstract Concepts from the early literature on play therapy with childrenare related to recent innovative contributions to the training of psychotherapists in supervision. A review of some of the research evidence supporting the use of role play and storytelling in supervisionis presented. Then a particular method called Mimesis is highlighted that uses stories with universal mythological themes that are relevant to the development of psychotherapists. It is hypothesized that storytelling coupled with spontaneous role-play bring both supervisor and supervisee into a liminal space that can foster empathy and the attainment of psychotherapy skills. Keywords: psychotherapy, supervision in psychotherapy, Mimesis, storytelling, role-play 1. EARLY DISCUSSIONS OF PLAY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH CHILDREN Our understanding of play in clinical work with children benefited greatly from the contributions of writers such as Winnecott [1] and Axline [2]. Winnecott [1] gave compelling descriptions of the way children use play to symbolize their experience and how children also symbolized the conversations between their parents and the therapist. In describing the emergence of play in children’s lives, one of the concepts he put forth was that of “potential space” which is that space between child and mother (caretaker) that represents an overlap of the child’s inner world with external reality. He stated that the precariousness and frightening aspect of play has to do with the fact that it exists on the line between the subjective inner world of the child and that which is objectively perceived. He believed that play is also quite