The Clinical Supervisor-Practitioner Working Alliance

Abstract The focus of my presentation this morning is the core dynamics and skills of the supervisor-practitioner working alliance, or what I will refer to as the working relationship. I will present a model that suggests that the use of certain communication, relationship and problem-solving skills by the supervisor can influence the development of a positive working relationship with the supervisee, and that this working relationship is the medium through which the supervisor influences the practitioner. I stress the words “influence” because a central assumption of this approach is that both supervision and direct practice are interactional in nature. The supervisor and the supervisee each play a part in the process. The outcome of supervision is the result of how well each contributes to the process. This morning's presentation focuses on the supervisor's role. One of the discussions is the concept of the “parallel process.” While the role of the supervisor and the purpose of supervision are quite different from counseling and therapy, nevertheless there are striking parallels in the dynamics and skills. There is a suggestion that “more is caught than taught” and that our supervisees watch us very closely. Whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, our supervisees learn more about practice from the way we work with them than from what we say about their actual practice. Supervision is not therapy. In fact, supervisors who are seduced into a therapeutic relationship with their supervisees actually model poor practice since they lose sight of the true purpose of clinical supervision and their role in the process.