Interpersonal aspects of the supervision of individual psychotherapy

Both the pleasures and pains of psychotherapy supervision have been described for the three parties--resident, supervisor, and patient--involved in such work. Although both positive and negative aspects have been included in order to be comprehensive, it is clear to those who have engaged in supervision for many years that the pleasures far outweigh the pains for those concerned. A variety of means of facilitating the growth and increasing the knowledge of student psychotherapists have been undertaken. My own experience over 33 years suggests that individual supervision remains the second most important way to become a competent psychotherapist. The first, of course, is to engage in psychotherapy with patients. This paper is an overview of the interpersonal aspects of individual supervision of psychotherapy. When the resident and supervisor bring certain attributes to the supervisory situation, then all the more can be accomplished in their work together. Including both its pleasures and its pains, psychotherapy supervision is a creative and fulfilling undertaking for both residents and their supervisors.