IJSP Number 3, 2021

30 exciting for the same reason and can be a naturally therapeutic and creative experience that leads to satisfying social relationships. Winnecott [1] was careful to point out that the most important moment in play was when the child surprised themselves, not when the psychoanalyst gave an insightful interpretation. A conclusion one may draw from this statement is thatthe educative and social impact of play proceeds regardless of the interventions of the therapist. Winnecott greatly respected the work of Axline who wrote about the importance of the permissiveness of the play space when describing her non- directive play therapy [1]. A permissive play space allows the child to experience growth under the most favorable conditions which include the availability of a wide variety of play materials and the opportunity to play out an entire range of feelings. Axline believed that by playing the child brings feelings to the surface which allows an opportunity to work on them and furthermore to achieve a sense of increasing agency and competence on the path to realizing their selfhood. Both the accounts of Winnecott and Axline emphasize the importance of the presence of an accepting and mirroring therapist or caretaker who facilitates the process of play and thereby the child’s development. Though play therapy with children may initially seem very unlike the preparation of psychotherapists in supervision, it is the position taken in this paper that the above ideas about play can greatly assist the clinical supervisor and the psychotherapy trainee. This point will be returned to after reviewing some of the research contributions regardingthe use of play in psychotherapy supervision. 2. RESEARCH ON THE USE OF PLAY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY SUPERVISION The uses of role play and other creative arts approaches are increasingly being explored in the supervisory relationship with an eye toward improving competence and therapy outcomes [3], [4], [5], [6], and [7]. Most of these approaches use role playing, and some use stories, to raise important developmental issues and provide an experiential and reflective way to attain skillsfor the psychotherapist in training. Andersson et. al. [3] found that a group of supervisees who were conducting psychotherapy reported increased empathy for their clients and enhanced awareness of their role as therapists after partaking in a mindfulness-based role play workshop. The authors made the point that empathy is a difficult skill to develop using conventional supervision methods. At the same time a meta-analysis of available research showed it is one of the most important components of successful treatment [8] and also a teachable skill [9]. Borders and Brown described, as didthis author [10], the advantages of the clinical supervisee taking the role of the patient in a role play with their