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Abstract
This paper, based on a qualitative study of 19 MSW field instructors immediately following their first year supervising graduate social work students, investigates their supervisory experiences and developmental processes through their own perspectives. This experience presented field instructors with unique challenges and opportunities to grow through analysis and reflection on their own practice, deeper self-awareness, working through and integrating their own student experiences, and appreciating their own competence and value. A supervision and parenting analogy and the theme of the student as selfobject, which emerged from the interviews, are described. Supervision of interns, a key experience which may deepen the development of the professional self of clinicians, should be encouraged and supported.
