ABSTRACT

Supervision is connected with all aspects of dramatherapeutic work. Grant (1999) has described the core of supervision to be the act of a therapist presenting their work to a supervisor. It is an ongoing process, normally conducted throughout the practising life of a therapist, and concerns and consists of a complex set of relationships. Grant sees supervision as `an opportunity for clients to get the best help possible', as well as aiding the professional development of the therapist (Grant 1999: 7). In her comments we already see client, therapist, supervisor and profession brought into relationship with each other through the act of supervision. Supervision has become closely allied to professionalisation, and in the UK is a necessary component of state registration. As Chesner, for example, has pointed out in relation to dramatherapists in the UK:

The profession in Britain has reached a point . . . where there is not only a list of practitioners and trainees but a register of dramatherapy supervisors. These have been trained in a BADth accredited course and themselves make a commitment to be supervised on their supervision as a further level of professional quality assurance.