IJSP Number 3, 2021

92 In short, the emergence of “parallel processes” is defined as “a phenomenon in which supervises present themselves to the supervisor as their clients present in front of them”. In more detail, the supervisor begins to adopt in the supervision the therapist’s attitudes and behaviours from the relationship with the client. Parallel processes have been explained in different ways, but also as bottom-up processes, namely [10]: • The therapist identifies with the client and produces reactions in the supervisor similar to those experienced with the client; • The therapist exposes the client’s issue to the supervisor, at an unconscious level, just as the client exposed it during therapy; • The therapist tends to select from the client’s issue a part that resonates with something “personal” within his psyche, or “unresolved” or “current” issues; • Parallel processes are observed to have a pattern similar to the idea of repetition; • The therapist can also convey the client’s “non-verbalized” content to the supervisor; • At the beginning of supervision, the therapist also selects some common issues, known to both, to be brought to “resolution” in front of the supervisor. But what would be the usefulness of parallel processes? These prove to be important in the more complete, broader understanding of the client’s dysfunction, and in the supervisory situation both the parallel processes between the supervisor and the supervisee, and that between the therapist and the client help. Similarly, the more they are explored in the supervisory relationship, the more the therapist learns how to interact with the clinician, in the same way that s/he interacted with the supervisor. For example, if a therapist works with an agitated or confused client, s/he may feel agitated and confused in supervision, and if this is not characteristic, it is what the client “put / triggered” in the therapist, and even the supervisor comes to feel the same phenomena. Parallel processes are “a surprise that never ends” and this statement is underlined because therapy always involves the unconscious part of all “participants” in the process, including, of course, the supervisory relationship. “Pseudo-parallel processes” have also been discussed in these situations, which refer to the therapist’s “unresolved”, which affect both the relationship with the client and the supervisor. The key to synthetic parallel processes is that both the treatment and the dyads involved stage similar relational models. They are useful to explore when these relational patterns are not available for conscious elaboration, for discussion, meaning, and negotiation in the client-therapist relationship. That’s why there is a need for a “third” that is a projection screen or an “absorption sponge” or a “reflection mirror” [9].