Stumbling blocks in the supervision of cognitive psychotherapy

Issues concerning supervision, let alone the training of supervisors, can at best be described as deficient in the cognitive psychotherapy literature. The aim of the present article is to examine some aspects of the supervisory process which may hinder its unfolding. Some stumbling‐blocks relating to the supervisory context, the supervisee, and the supervisor are identified and some suggestions how to avoid them are made. Also, possible areas of research are pointed out besides that concerned with monitoring that therapists employ cognitive therapy in an orthodox manner. Even though the author is in favour of cognitive psychotherapy, reference is also made to relevant knowledge which has accumulated in other domains of psychotherapy on the assumption that, by analogy with therapy, there are factors common to and shared by all kinds of supervision, independent of context, or theoretical orientation.