Field practice supervision of social work students: a psychodynamic view on the emotional context of the process and the setting during the client assessment phase

Abstract

This empirical study is a psychodynamic view of the supervision setting and key emotional parameters during the client assessment process. The supervisor, through reflectivity, studied his own supervision practice with undergraduate social work students during their first field practice placement. By using supervision critical incidents, he formulated the basic characteristics of the supervision setting, and followed it up with discussion on the key emotional parameters of the supervision process. Particular emphasis was laid on psychodynamic understanding of the supervision process and the consequences of supervisor's interventions for both supervisees and clients. The emotional context of the supervision process during the client assessment phase was predominantly shaped by four emotional parameters: (i) the supervisor identifying with both client and supervisee needs; (ii) the supervisor concentrating on exclusively the educational character of supervision by avoiding dealing with student's personality issues; (iii) the supervisor dealing with client and supervisee ‘transferences to the setting’; and (iv) the supervisor setting and safeguarding the supervision limits and boundaries.

Keywords:

• Supervision
• Student
• Social Work
• Psychodynamic
• Assessment