Deadness, vitality, and the perception of movement in supervision

Maintaining the balance between the contradictory experiential states of aliveness and deadness helps to strengthen the supervisory dyad’s capacity to take in, contain, and understand the supervisee’s therapeutic experiences. Usually, the supervisor does not need to regulate these experiential states because the dialectical tension between them is a generative force. Sometimes, however, an overwhelming burden of clinical responsibility arouses anxiety in the supervisory dyad and urges the supervisor and supervisee to submerge themselves in the existential state of everydayness and anonymity that strengthens emotional deadness. On such occasions, the supervisor can enliven the supervisory process by focusing on manifestations of movement in the supervisee’s discourse because movement is associated with the force of life that inspires growth, creativity, and renewal. I will describe three potential and symbolic movement types embedded in the supervisee’s discourse. Indirectly, vitalizing the individual supervisory processes can vitalize the therapeutic process and the analytic culture.