A one-day professional development workshop for supervisors exploring how supervisees’ experiences of self-appearing can be meaningfully held and worked with in supervision..
Prerequisite:
Participants must have completed The Therapist’s Self-Appearing workshop. This session builds directly on the concepts, language, and framework introduced there.
While The Therapist’s Self-Appearing workshop focuses on how therapists experience themselves appearing in practice, this workshop translates those findings into the supervision context.
Drawing on my PhD research with twelve experienced therapists, alongside a dialogical discussion group with phenomenologically-oriented supervisors, this workshop offers a practical framework for supporting supervisees as they encounter moments of self-appearing in their work.
This workshop invites supervisors to explore how the phenomenon of self-appearing can be thoughtfully engaged within supervision. The focus is on creating conditions where supervisees can notice, stay with, and grow from moments in which they experience themselves appearing in their therapeutic work.
Rather than moving quickly to explanation or solution, the workshop explores how supervision can develop into a space where supervisors can honour and carefully explore how supervisees notice themselves appearing.
The workshop explores four interconnected themes that emerged from my doctoral research.
Supervisors who hold a phenomenological attitude create space for self-appearing experiences.
Holding the space to allow for disruptions that accompany self-appearing experiences is vital.
Understanding the research framework of convention-disruption-transformation gives a platform for exploring self-appearing experiences.
Supervisors modelling their own experiences of noticing themselves appear in their work adds depth to the supervision experience.
While supervision of early-career therapists is often associated with vulnerability, research shows that experienced therapists also encounter moments where their familiar ways of practising are disrupted.
This workshop offers a framework for working with self-appearing across all stages of professional development — from normalising early-career uncertainty to supporting ongoing growth for experienced practitioners.
This workshop positions the disruptions that accompany moments of self-appearing as potentially transformative rather than problematic.
The research revealed that when supervisors create the right conditions, supervisees can move from resistant attunement (wanting to escape disruption) to receptive attunement (meeting experience with openness and curiosity). This shift opens space for growth and therapeutic wisdom to emerge.
Throughout the day, we explore how a safe, genuine supervisory relationship — characterised by warmth, acceptance, empathy, and trust — forms the foundation for meaningful exploration.
We’ll consider how a supervisor’s willingness to stay present with disruption models a way of being that supervisees can internalise and carry into their therapeutic work.
This workshop offers a phenomenologically grounded approach to supervision that honours both the supervisor’s and supervisee’s lived experience.
It’s an invitation to create a supervision space where therapeutic wisdom can emerge through careful attention to experience.
