ABSTRACT

Across different models of therapy and counselling there are common themes and ideas that inform both the practice and the supervision of the practice. Whatever the model of therapy, there will be differences between practitioners in style and understanding of the parameters of the model and hence much diversity of supervision within and between models. As long as half a century ago Fiedler’s (1950, 1951) studies established that those who adhere to a particular therapeutic theory cannot be regarded as interchangeable units. He found that there could be more difference between two therapists who espoused the same theory than between two therapists with apparently dissimilar theories. A psychologist’s espoused theory may correspond only imperfectly with what he or she does in actual practice (Goodyear, Bradley and Bartlett, 1983).