Future developments in psychoanalytic supervision

Abstract

In parallel to analytic therapy, the theory and practice of supervision have significantly changed in recent decades, reflecting global cultural transformations. While wishing to preserve valuable traditional analytic insights and principles, many supervisors also wish to incorporate new ways of understanding the supervisory materials and the supervisees’ developmental needs. In this paper, I will suggest that three major changes have occurred and will probably develop in the future: from highlighting past orientation to future orientation, from educational and therapeutic goals to experiential goals, and from linear logical understanding to prereflective understanding in supervision. Discussing these future developments is essential because the supervisory encounter promotes an intergenerational dialogue and integration of the old and the new in analytic therapy and supervision.

Keywords:

• Supervision
• global changes
• future orientation
• interpreting and experiencing
• prereflective thinking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This paper will be given as a presentation at the annual meeting of BCA and the Psychodynamic Practice journal on November 11 in London, UK.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanoch Yerushalmi

Hanoch Yerushalmi Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa, and Gordon College of Education, Israel, is a Submissions Editor in Psychodynamic Practice, UK, and a Consulting Editor in Psychoanalytic Social Work, USA. Prof. Yerushalmi served as the Director of the Student Counseling Center at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, and a consultant to psychotherapy centers in Israel, the USA, and Central America. He published numerous articles on supervision, therapists’ development, relational psychoanalytic therapy, crisis and growth, and psychiatric rehabilitation.