IJSP Number 8, 2026

International Journal of Supervision in Psychotherapy, Number 8, 2026 Page | 106 came up regularly with my supervisees. This exploration offers the supervisee a moment to reflect on her feelings; the body countertransference brings up strong emotions, such as feeling frozen after each session with him. I invite the supervisee to draw six large random sized shapes. When the task is completed and I see that she has filled the paper. THE SIX-SHAPE STRUCTURE 1. Client and relationship to therapist - an important relationship in developing the therapeutic alliance: it’s a beautiful coral fish. The boy is bright green. The orange jacket brings more color to his life. That is the therapist. 2. Ideal goals: the flow of water is constricted, there are obstacles in the middle. 3. What are the obstacles? Barbed wire, sharp boundaries, it’s helpless, the fear is huge. 4. Exploring my feelings: the leaves represent growth even though I touched elements of fear. 5. What is helping me to get unstuck: wisdom where there is weight -- but there is also a sense of helplessness. In the spiral, you enter but do not know where to move to. 6. The way forwards: keep moving round corners. The 6S enables my supervisee to bring her emotions to supervision. Her sense of helplessness and her feelings and emotions are explored. As we move through each step of the creative method, colors and images appear to speak to her and open up the therapeutic relationship with her client. As the creative method unfolds, we see the therapist’s countertransference feelings emerge. Fear takes the metaphorical form of barbed wire. The creative process enables Olha to unpack her emotions and continue working with her client. It also enables her to resource with the possibility to reflect in action while releasing her fears and self-doubts. This process in fact raised moments of hope especially in the client-therapist relationship relating to Eye 3 and the bigger picture: an Eye 7 exploration of both therapist and boy having to leave Ukraine and finding themselves in a new culture at the same time. This reflection in action enables Olha to see more clearly how she symbolizes herself as a coral fish. 3.3. CASE THREE: ANNA AND THE SOLDIER Anna is a Ukrainian-based psychologist and sensorimotor therapist. She has been working with her client, a soldier, for a month. Like many therapists working with soldiers, their weekly sessions take place by telephone. The soldier has been suffering with grief, packed with guilt following an accident where comrades lost their lives. One of the tragic deaths was that of the soldier’s best friend. They had been inseparable for 10 years. The camera is switched off during Anna’s therapy sessions with her client, which she feels signifies his not wanting to be seen. We discuss that this may be due to the fact that he feels some shame about, and responsibility for, the accident. Anna does not push him for information, being aware of the possibility for re-trauma; she listens but doesn’t ask for details. Rothschild offers a recovery rule that trauma recovery without memory