IJSP Number 3, 2021

34 This, in turn, may help the trainee to accept their own state of incompleteness and dedicate themselves to lifelong learning. While playing with roles the participants can experiment with a variety of interventions that may or may not work in a particular situation. In addition, a player may reveal options that may come easily to them that were not easily accessible for others for a variety of reasons. By widening the range of possible interventions through the act of playing all can achieve greater flexibility and resilience by developing and becoming comfortable with a greater repertoire of possible interventions that may be useful for a given patient at a given time. An example of such an intervention came to me during my internship year working in a residential treatment centre with adjudicated youth many years ago. A supervisor of mine, a very slightly built, bespectacled, and unimposing fellow, was confronted by an enraged teenager who screamed at him and belittled him mercilessly. In my memory I can almost see my supervisor’s hair blown back as he weathered the tirade. Then the teen paused, panting, and the air seemed electrifiedbetween them. That is when the supervisor calmly deadpanned, “Wow, why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” This massively understated bit of misdirection had all within earshot howling with laughter, and even the angry teen couldn’t hide a smile. The supervisor’s reaction was playful and clearly led to a lessening of tension in a fraught situation. It was a lesson for me in a type of intervention that would never have occurred to me at that point in my development as a clinician. It became a tool I immediately filed away though and in the course of my career had opportunities to use several times myself. The development of creative and playful ways to conduct supervision enhances the experience for both supervisors and supervisees. These approaches are more demanding in that they requireengaged activity and are likely to stir emotions. They place learning in a context that is closer to the actual experience of providing psychotherapy, where the clinician is thinking and managing emotional reactions in real time. When approached with openness the greater similarity to providing actual psychotherapy that play provides helps trainees and their supervisors become more honest, flexible, and resilient. REFERENCES [1] Winnicott, D. (1971). Playing and Reality. London and New York: Routledge. [2] Axline, V. (1969). Play Therapy , New York: Ballantine Books. [3] Andersson, L., King, R., & Lalande, L. (2010). Dialogical mindfulness in supervision role-play. Counseling and Psychotherapy Research ,10, 287–294.