Supervisees’ paradoxical need for knowledge

Abstract

Supervisors who wish to meet their supervisees’ needs to grow as clinicians will encounter two paradoxical knowledge-related needs of supervisees. On one pole of this paradox is their need to assimilate new knowledge into their existing clinical knowledge; on the other pole is their need for acknowledgement, validation, and formulation of their unique experiential and unarticulated knowledge. Meeting this need helps the supervisees to balance regressive states and painful gaps between their own and their supervisors’ knowledge, which might put the supervisory relationship at risk.

Key words:

• experiential knowledge
• validation
• formulation
• paradox

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanoch Yerushalmi

Author

Hanoch Yerushalmi, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the Department of Community Mental Health of the University of Haifa in Israel. He was formerly the director of the Student Counseling Center at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Yerushalmi has published numerous articles on relational psychoanalytic therapy, crisis and growth, supervision, and psychiatric rehabilitation.