Dialectical Tensions and Metaperspectives in Supervision

The supervisory dialogue about the meanings of the supervisee’s therapeutic experiences is characterized by both facilitative and disruptive underlying forces. Partly, the disruptive forces pertain to transferences that result from either repression or dissociation and require exploration and interpretation. They also partly pertain to dialectical tensions resulting from differences and contradictions. In this article I focus on the dialectical tensions that result from the difference between the participants’ fundamental motivations to assert themselves; these tensions require mutual recognition to overcome them. I also discuss tensions that result from inherent different perspectives on the narrated therapeutic interaction and that require adopting metaperspectives to overcome them. Resolving dialectical tensions helps the participants achieve a higher-order conceptualization of the supervisee’s therapeutic experiences and grow personally and professionally.