A call for change of emphasis in psychodynamic supervision

Supervisors are called upon to maintain an ambience of acceptance which fosters growth and enables the supervisees to search for the true meaning of their professional self. This article uses self psychology as a model for structuring the supervisory relationship and suggests that supervisors' 'empathic failures' in identifying and fulfilling their supervisees' needs disturb and even undermine this necessary ambience. When the process of supervision is disturbed by empathic failure, the interpersonal events within the supervision should be carefully examined in order to reorganize and rework the supervisory experience and restore the participants' emotional balance and their ability to work well within the supervision.