ABSTRACT
This article applies contemporary literature in neuroscience to the clinical supervisory relationship. There has been limited application of the concepts of neurobiology to the clinical supervisory process in spite of the increasing literature that integrates a range of neurobiological theory with clinical processes (Applegate & Shapiro, 2005; Chapman, 2014; Cozolino, 2010; DeKoven Fishbane, 2013; Miehls, 2014; A. N. Schore, 2012). Later, I summarize the beginning literature that more directly links neurobiology to supervision (Binder, 1999; Montgomery, 2013; Wilkinson, 2010); this article furthers this literature as its purpose is to offer a number of illustrations of supervisor-supervisee dyads that are conceptualized as being influenced by largely based right-hemisphere interactions between the supervisory dyad. As such, I emphasize how understanding the meaning and significance of implicit communication between the supervisory dyad sheds light on the clinical process issues that are the foci of the supervision hours. The conceptual tenets of this article are framed in neuroscience literature that underscores that individuals communicate through language (left-hemisphere activities) and nonverbal implicit communication (righthemisphere activities). Consistent with many other articles in this special issue of Smith Studies, we emphasize that working dyads, in this instance, the supervisory relationship, can be strengthened when the supervisee and the supervisor utilize bodily sensations, nonverbal communication, intuition, points of rupture, and dissociative experiences during the supervision (to name a few) as sources of data that help to explain and unearth the rich dynamic interplay of factors between the client-supervisee dyad and the supervisee-supervisor dyad. Individuals expose their right-hemisphere reactions to the content of the therapy and/or supervisory sessions through a variety of well-known behavioral manifestations including facial expression, tone and prosody of the voice, bodily manifestations of anxiety or “tightness” in the chest or stomach, and averted eye glance, to name a few.
