S
CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Group sandtray consultation enhanced a supervisee’s insight and contained her client’s story.
upervision is a relationship with legal implications regarding the chain of liability, access to clinical information, and authority to insist on a course of
action. A consultation relationship is a voluntary process motivated by one’s own desire for professional development, clinical enhancement, and peer support without explicit authority. A supervisor has criteria which must be assessed and tended; during consultation, though, a consultee primarily sets the agenda for the session. Persons providing supervision and/or consultation should be knowledgeable about the use the proper terms accordingly. In this article, we use the words
Structure and Symbol in Group Consultation: Developing a Learning Community Stewart and Echterling (2008) discussed the supervisory relationship as a learning community. They described ways in which rituals and routines enhance the overall experience by increasing collective identity, providing predictability that allows for risk taking, and ultimately evolves toward the members making the group uniquely theirs.
The intentional use of symbolic expression deepens the reflective process and expands communication (Luke, 2008). Our opening ritual of selecting a miniature to share what we are bringing within us as we start our process, provides a bridge from our day-to-day experiences to the work of exploring our professional selves. In using the expressive means to “arrive” with one another, we increase group cohesion and begin to experience potential transference and countertransference material that may emerge in our clinical explorations for that session. Generally speaking, transference occurs when feelings one has are unconsciously redirected to someone else; countertransference moves in the opposite direction, as a reaction to transference (Social Work Degree Guide, 2019; Tudor & Merry, 2006a, 2006b).
Within this particular group, all of us have sandtray training. This ritual continues to reinforce the power of symbolic means of expression, ensuring that we practice with the tools we rely on in our work. Heather, as supervisor, consultant, and presenter, tries to weave nurturing and mindfulness into the overall learning process. A goal of this experience is for supervisees to be nourished while learning to be attentive and slowing down. To this end, the group shares a healthy home-baked treat and uses a colored liquid timer to re-settle ourselves between case presentations, closing one story before beginning another.
In group, the time is divided among the participants that wish to present. Members are asked to prepare in advance and to present an intention, such as a case-related goal or another professional issue.
Although the topics can be broad, the expectation is that each person arrives prepared to get the most from the process. Clarity about the goals and desired feedback is helpful for all parties.
Resolving Confusion and Countertransference: A Case Example Three months in a row, Lynda, an RPT-S with over 20 years of experience, brought the same case for consultation: a young adolescent with been working with for a long time and for whom treatment had evolved over time. Lynda struggled to articulate her question or concern, and even to provide the most basic case conceptualization material. The could not keep track of them. Everyone in the group struggled with how to be most helpful, as we could see her spinning.
Cheryl described how “each time Lynda presented the case, I got more and more confused. I think she did, too, on what it was she was looking for from supervision. It seemed that the confusion that emerged from her shifting details generated frustration in the group. We did not know how to help her, and we only added further confusion when we tried.”
Lynda indicated feeling guilty in the group because, “My way of explaining want to help them to help me. I’m such an internal processor, and I’m struggling to bring it out.”
As the group facilitator, Heather became keenly aware of the
countertransference energies pulsating in the group. The subjective experience of each member was being received loud and clear, flooding the small space. Heather felt a wide range of intense feelings and the pressure of assuming the facilitator role in a group of experienced play therapists with whom long-term connections and overlapping relationships had been developed. Trust in herself began to waiver. How does the supervisor productively hold all that there is to hold toward some fruitful outcome for all involved? How could she best handle her own feelings of anxiety and frustration? Heather had known Lynda the longest, and the personal-professional boundaries between them were the most diffuse in the group. Heather’s familiarity with spirals were on the horizon.
www.a4pt.org | December 2019 | PLAYTHERAPY | 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
