Supervising in Institutions

Abstract

In this chapter I draw on my experience of supervising psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychodynamic counselling in a number of public and voluntary agencies in the mental health field, sometimes in institutions that are not primarily set up to deliver psychotherapy or with practitioners who are not trained psychotherapists. The different institutional supervisory settings in which I have worked as an analyst include an NHS psychotherapy unit, general practice, a psychodynamic counselling training organisation, a child and adolescent psychiatry department and an institute teaching psychoanalytic psychotherapy in St Petersburg, Russia. As well as group supervision I also supervise individuals, for example a psychodynamic counsellor in an epilepsy service and a senior nurse practitioner, herself running supervision groups. I believe this personal list of organisations is fairly representative of those in which analysts find themselves invited to supervise. It is necessary to make the obvious point that the setting and context in which supervision takes place moulds and influences the nature of the supervision that is appropriate.