Supervision as a “Situation”: Recognition of the Therapist’s Intentionality

ABSTRACT This article proposes a Gestalt therapy perspective on supervision defined as aesthetic recognition of the supervisee’s intentionality in the supervisory situation. Drawing on humanistic values, supervision is seen as a support to what already works in the therapeutic relationship, rather than as a teaching function. The author claims that there is a lack of studies on how the humanistic shift inside psychotherapy is applied to supervision. This article also proposes specific guidelines to practice a Gestalt therapy supervision that uses a situational approach: phenomenological bracketing is the condition that allows a look at the dance between a specific supervisor and a specific supervisee at a given time (as well as between therapist and client), focusing on the aliveness of their relationship.