IJSP Number 8, 2026

International Journal of Supervision in Psychotherapy, Number 8, 2026 Page | 27 professional practice, when supervisees still feel uncertain, therapy processes are presented in a distorted or incomplete manner  6  . Reasons for this may be that both remembering and verbalizing memories are subject to different censorship. Supervisees in the early developmental phase of their professional practice have also been shown to focus more on themselves than on their clients  7  . Empirical studies show that when asked about the extent of self-disclosure to their supervisors, a significant proportion of supervisees reported that they sometimes or frequently did not address alleged treatment errors in their supervision due to uncertainty and shame  8, 9, 10  . The ability to access audio or video material during supervision increases the density of information  3  and offers the advantage that the supervisor can observe the therapeutic process unedited. If supervision takes place at a different time, the debriefing can only rely on the supervisee's recollections. In addition to supervision by means of a subsequent verbal report by the supervisee and supervision by means of subsequent observation (e.g., through audio or video recordings), live supervision is considered the third category of supervision forms  11  . Live supervision is characterized by the supervisor observing a treatment live and, depending on the needs and agreement, also being able to intervene directly in the therapy process  5  . It can therefore be described as a synchronous procedure  12  , in which the supervisor can observe a therapy session in real time and/or provide direct guidance  13  . “Live supervision offers a format that allows the supervisor direct observation of the supervisee and thus an uncensored assessment of the therapy session and the supervisee's level of development. This allows the supervisor to influence the therapeutic competence of the supervisee and to provide a suitable, need- oriented impetus for professional development.”  3, p. 172  It is tricky to come up with a single definition of live supervision because there are different forms of it. Its beginnings are associated with the use of one-way mirrors in Systemic Family Therapy (Marriage and Family Therapy) in the 1950s. The great achievement at that time was the possibility of observation by the supervisor or a team of supervisors. However, the supervision itself took place at a subsequent point in time, at the earliest after the end of the therapy session. Gradually, methods were adopted that allowed direct intervention in psychotherapeutic processes. In this way, different forms of feedback were developed during an ongoing session, e.g., by means of a phone call (“phone - in” method), by entering the therapy room (“knock -on-the- door” m ethod), or by means of headphones (earbuds) worn by the supervisee (“bug -in-the- ear” method). Digital methods are now also increasingly being used, whereby the supervisor does not have to be on site but can follow the session in real time via digital media and supervise directly using bug- in-the-ear and video, which the supervisee can view during the session  3  . Such methods are now used in particular in cognitive behavioral therapy, but psychodynamic approaches are also applying various forms of live supervision to an increasing extent  14  , despite initial rejection  15  . 2.1 A SPECIAL KIND OF LIVE-SUPERVISION The type of live supervision discussed in this article differs from the common methods described above. We are referring to live supervision as part of training to become a psychotherapist from the first semester onwards.