Depending on the intent and emphasis of the supervisor, clinical supervision can be a different experience

The paper proposes that clinical supervision can be a very different experience for the practitioner depending on the intent and emphasis of the supervisor. Utilizing Habermas's typology of knowledge constituted interests (1971), clinical supervision can be viewed as a dialectic between technical and emancipatory interests. The rhetoric and spirit of supervision would suggest an emancipatory approach yet the reality is that when supervision is accommodated with bureaucratic cultures, the technical interest will be dominant, especially when supervisors are in line-management roles to practitioners. This raises issues around the nature and role of clinical leadership, and ways of bridging the tension between emancipatory and technical interests.