IJSP Number 3, 2021

90 • involves the co-creation of a new narrative (client-therapist or therapist- supervisor) • includes the perspective of a “third party” or the story told by a third person; • any image, idea, is co-created and subjected to deconstruction and reconstruction Casement [2] speaks about internalization, as a result of repeated interactions with a supervisor, with the “internal supervisor”. From my own experience as a psychotherapist engaged in the supervision process (as supervisee), often the supervisor’s nonverbal reactions helped to normalize my experience or were a sign of a supportive attitude. Also, the supervisory meeting made certain beliefs about the world and people more flexible, which were implicit in my reporting to the client, often at an unconscious level [3]. From a relational perspective, supervision is intended to be a containing environment for change, an idea supported by developmental-relational theories in psychotherapy (supporting bilateral influence in psychotherapy). As for the supervisor, he is the container of multiple relationships, on different levels and of different invoice. The supervisor has several roles; he has to perform several functions and to take into account multiple aspects, such as [4]: • being in contact with oneself so that s/he is aware of the countertransfer reactions towards the supervisee; • knowing and understanding the intrasubjective and intersubjective world; • being aware of the intersubjective (relational) dynamics. 2. RELATIONAL SUPERVISION During supervision, any of these issues may be the focus of attention. The supervisor’s position is somewhat difficult and unusual, given that s/he must make sense of the client’s subjective reality with whom s/he does not see, but about whom s/he knows about only from the supervised psychotherapist, all information being filtered through the latter’s perspective. Therefore, the supervision process is one of co-creating meaning between supervisor and supervisee, in order to facilitate a similar process in the therapist-client relationship. In developing this concept of relational supervision , Gilbert and Evans [5] start from Harry Stack Sullivan’s concept of observer participant in interrelational psychiatry, which was seen as the science in which the observer was an invisible part of work / research / process.