Significant events in psychotherapy supervision: Supervisees’ experiences and perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to explore the events, which happen in psychotherapy supervision sessions that supervisees perceive as significant and facilitative for their professional learning, work and growth. 37 supervisees answered the Questionnaire of significant aspects in supervision (immediately or at least within 24 hours) after two su­pervision sessions. Questions were open ended and asked supervisees about their expe­rience of the particular supervision session. 67 questionnaires were analysed following the code process, recommended by Corbin and Strauss (2008). The research shows that significant events in supervision are co-created by all the par­ticipants of supervision: supervisor, supervisee and his/her colleagues (in the case of group supervision). Significant and facilitative events were connected to the superviso­ry relationship, the supervisee’s countertransference, the conceptualization of the cases, directions for further psychotherapeutic work, clear feedback and practising skills. We have also discovered an important supervision process: the regulation process.