ABSTRACT
I will present several considerations from my own DMT experience of transcultural encounters, clashes or misunderstandings. This chapter comprises three main sections and a final theoretical reflection. I organised these sections according to my own position in the situations I will recall: (1) as a student in a training group, (2) as a student therapist in a clinical placement and (3) as a supervisor on a training course. Alongside the change of status from student to supervisor there was a change of country since I trained as a dance movement therapist in London and now practise and teach DMT at a university in Lisbon, Portugal. I have chosen this approach because I would like to emphasise the dynamic aspect of supervison – we become supervisors. This is a multi-layered process, involving the present relationship with the student in front of us, the recent past of the therapeutic experience the student chooses to reflect on with us and the distant past of our own experiences that we use to relate to what is being told. There is also a future dimension when we combine all these aspects and imagine or suggest alternative approaches, opening new pathways both to the student and to ourselves.
