ABSTRACT
Supervision, like psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, is not a value-free process. Supervision is an interpersonal process in that both trainee and supervisor possess concepts about the social world that include society's view of roles and behaviors appropriate for women and men. These social concepts are reflected in the language habits and communication processes of each person as demonstrated in how he or she describes and explains supervisory goals, processes, and expectations. Specifically, the content of these communications involve certain parameters, such as who in the relationship can hypothesize, the extent of question-answer behavior, the expression of curiosity, the range of emotions that can be displayed, and whether the relationship can tolerate disagreement and yet promote exploration of clinical material. Each person comes into the relationship with experiences in terms of each of these communication sequences. How these elements are negotiated, whether consciously or unconsciously, will play a part in determining the comfort, trust, and the quality of the atmosphere for learning that is created.
