IJSP Number 5, 2023

9 In this early phase and throughout the supervision, I use internal awareness exercises to facilitate the supervisee in focusing on their moment-by-moment physiological and affective experience when talking about their client [5]. Periodically I ask the supervisee to assume the same body posture as their client, to centre their attention on the body tensions and physiological sensations, to fully imagine themselves in their client’s situation. If done well these awareness exercises result in the supervisee’s increased capacity for physiological resonance, rhythmic attunement, and empathy with their client’s affect. I may also encourage the supervisee to take the time to observe what is occurring externally, without assigning any value or interpretation. I remember Fritz Perls instructing the Gestalt training group to begin our training sessions with “right now I am aware of ‘as we used our eyes, ears, and skin to receive impressions from the environment’. Then Fritz had us focus on our physical sensations, then on our affect. Eventually we moved rapidly between internal and external awareness. Such shuttling between internal and external contact stimulates the capacity for therapeutic presence. Masa and Gregor Zvelc have elaborated on the use of various awareness exercises in their book on mindful and compassionate supervision [6]. In this early phase of supervision, I often focus on refining the supervisee’s observational skills about the client’s body gestures, voice tone, cognitive style, and affect. And then correlating these observations with various theoretical frameworks that the supervisee may have learned in their training program, such as: attachment patterns; interruptions to contact; ego states, the script system; or, other theoretical models wherein the psychotherapist can organize their observations to form treatment options. I periodically suggest specific readings and invite the supervisee to discuss the readings and how the ideas may apply to their client. Skill development can be accomplished through a number of different formats. My preference is to encourage the supervisee to spontaneously talk about their relationship with their client and what may be perplexing to them. While they are doing this, I am attending to how they present their client, what they know and seem to not know, as well as what they are revealing about themselves. I engage the supervisee in a dialogue about their emotional reactions and understandings about their client; I use the opportunity to either teach a concept or support their growing self-confidence as a psychotherapist. I ask some supervisees to write a formal case report that describes the client’s presenting problem, family and school history, and a description of the psychotherapy methods the supervisee had been using. The time and thought that goes into a written report helps many supervisees to have a more thorough understanding of their client and what that client may need in their psychotherapy. Other supervisees find that a written case report is not as effective as a spontaneous discussion or reviewing recordings of their therapeutic work. With such supervisees I have invited them to bring audio or video samples of their psychotherapy work. These recordings provide us an opportunity to hear not only what the therapist is saying but also the prosody of their communication, the subtle rhythm and sound of what they are saying. We can then stop the recordings and consider alternative ways of being in relationship with the client.