The roles of group supervision of supervision

This article recommends that group supervision of supervision be an integral part of the curriculum of any senior professional who is involved in regular supervision of trainees. Work in the group setting enables use of group dynamics to understand therapeutic events as well as processes of mirroring and identification in the supervision. The supervisory group may promote feelings of security and containment in the supervisors while attenuating and minimizing their potential feelings of vulnerability and validating their perceptions of reality. At the same time, such a group gives rise to difficulties (owing to issues of trust and confidentiality) both inside and outside the group (e.g., among trainees who develop fantasies about the proceedings of the group). Some general resolution of such problems is presented here.