Power and Vulnerability in Supervision
By Dr Lynne Jacobs
About This Webinar
Both participants in the supervision relationship are personally and professionally vulnerable. Thus, the power is bidirectional, just as it is in therapy. Each participant has power, although the particular forms of power may be different, and the distribution of power may be asymmetrical. But no one is immune from narcissistic vulnerability, including the supervisor. Supervisors want to have the experience of being liked, respected, viewed as helpful, for instance. How do these desires get managed in difficult supervision processes? Supervisors and supervisees can benefit from exploring together how power and vulnerability operate in supervision relationships.
Also, themes of power and of vulnerability operate in different ways depending on the situation in which the supervisory relationship occurs. Are there racial or ethnic differences between the supervisor, supervisee, and/or the patient? Is the supervisee being evaluated in a formal manner by the supervisor? Is the supervisor being evaluated by the work setting in which the supervision takes place? Does the supervisee evaluate the supervisor in a formal or informal manner? How do the parties in the supervision relationship navigate the question of what kind of supervision best serves the supervisee and the patient?
We will explore together the vagaries of power and vulnerability, in hopes we can become more sensitized to the interplay of power and vulnerability in our supervisory relationships, and perhaps we can also become more graceful when these themes become disruptive forces in our work.
GLOBAL EXPERT SERIES
Deepen your supervisory practice
Explore how power and vulnerability shape every supervisory relationship
THE COURSE CURRICULUM
Power and Vulnerability in Supervision
Holding power with awareness, humility, and care
GLOBAL EXPERT SERIES
Bringing clarity to the unseen dynamics of supervision
Join a reflective exploration of supervision as a shared, relational process rather than a neutral authority role
About Dr Lynne Jacobs
Dr. Lynne Jacobs, Ph.D., is a both gestalt therapist and a relational psychoanalyst based in Los Angeles. She is a co-founder of Pacific Gestalt Institute and has long been interested in the relational dimension of psychotherapy, and in integrating humanistic theories with contemporary psychoanalytic theories. Lynne teaches at Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles and teaches gestalt therapists in the United states, and internationally. She has published numerous articles in both realms, and her most recent work is Relational Approaches in Gestalt Therapy (co-edited with Rich Hycner).