IJSP Number 5, 2023

11 If we use that specific theory, what type of intervention may be needed to help the client reach a resolution? When you imagine your client as a child what is happening to them and what does that child need in a reparative relationship? These types of supervisory questions lead us to dialogue about various viewpoints for understanding the client’s psychological functioning as well as providing opportunities for modelling, sharing experiences from the supervisor’s professional past, or role playing the client to facilitate the supervisee in identifying with the client and the quality of interpersonal contact that the client may need. In my supervisory practice I find that it is often necessary to re-teach concepts and interventions which the supervisee has learned previously but with the focus on how the concept or method may be applied in this specific therapy situation. By applying theory-into-practice the supervisee gains a thorough understanding of how the theoretical concepts are useful with their particular client. I may follow such a case consultation with reading assignments that may be helpful to understand the ideas discussed. And I ask them to return to supervision to discuss what they find meaningful in the readings. These collegial discussions are particularly growth-producing during the supervisee’s early phase of professional development. With some supervisees I have requested that they listen to recorded samples of their therapy several times between our supervisory sessions, each time listening to their work from a different theoretical perspective. An essential focus of my supervision in this early phase of professional development is on my facilitating the supervisee’s capacity to make full interpersonal contact, to be fully present with and for their client. This is based on the assumption that presence and involvement are the essential factors in effective psychotherapy [7]. I give a lot of attention to the supervisee mastering the skills of phenomenological, historical, and relational inquiry. I emphasize the relational methods of acknowledgement, validation, and normalization [8]. Throughout this skill development phase of supervision my goal is to help the supervisee acquire the relational skills of attunement to the client’s affect, rhythm, level of development, style of cognition, and relational needs [9]. I want the supervisee to have awareness of both their client’s relational needs as well as their own [10]. The trainee can be guided to identify areas in which their client is open to contact and where a person is closed to contact, whether it be cognitive, affective, behavioral or physiological [11]. For example, some clients may be resistant to behavioral changes until they first receive information that explains the problem or their psychodynamics. Others may need to express pent up emotions before they can process information about their dynamics and still others may need to change behavior first and then later cognitively process the meaning of that change. Skill-development is important in the first phase of supervision; it provides the supervisee with a solid foundation for applying theory into clinical practice while also providing the supervisor with needed information regarding the professional strengths of the supervisee and those areas where further teaching is necessary. Over the years I have erred when I have prematurely focused on building the supervisee’s confidence before the supervisee has formed a thorough foundation in understanding personality theory, therapy concepts, and various methods. I have