ABSTRACT
Supervision and therapy are similar in that both modalities involve a helper and one who wants help. Supervision begins with establishing the frame of treatment and the boundaries of supervision. In supervision, the clinical program or professional discipline, whose representative is the supervisor, sets its requirements and goals in terms of standards of professional ethics, work performance, and clinical treatment. While a therapist may occasionally help a patient with practical matters, and a supervisee may benefit personally from a supervisory comment, these gains are secondary to the main purpose. The relationship that the supervisor has with the supervisee gets reflected in the work of the supervisee with the patient. The basis of supervision is setting good, firm boundaries, holding consistently to an educational stance, and permitting freedom of affective expression within those clearly delineated parameters, and at the same time, being flexible enough to allow the supervisee's individuality to determine the shape of the supervisory process.
