Purpose. Supervision is an expanding area of clinical practice, and despite the threadbare evidence base, the demand for supervision provided by trained clinical supervisors is growing. This demand accompanies the injection of large numbers of psychological therapists into the UK National Health Service (NHS), and the increased expectations of good clinical governance. Therapeutically appropriate approaches that can help supervisors work with psychological therapists are needed.
Methods. Key processes in supervision are explored in the light of the clinical application of cognitive-analytic concepts, such as reciprocal roles, the zone of proximal personality development (ZPPD), and the super-addressee.
Results. Cognitive-analytic ideas allow for a reframing of traditional psychoanalytic concepts in supervision, such as parallel process. They offer a readily accessible model with which to think about the construction of interacting supervisory processes at the level of the individual self, the supervisory dyad or group, through to the organizational and cultural context. They provide a way to think about the supervisor’s development in the context of the evolving supervisory relationship.
Conclusion. A cognitive-analytic approach to supervision that includes both cognitive and relational dimensions of the work can help to broaden therapeutic thinking and navigate complexity, not only for cognitive-analytic therapists, but also for therapists using other cognitively oriented and integrative models.