ABSTRACT
Supervisors understand that it is difficult to treat traumatized patients. While individual supervision is invaluable in work with traumatized patients, the group supervision model is an often-overlooked modality which may be of particular help. This chapter describes a way of looking at trauma learned in group supervision, and focuses on a particular case to highlight some of the concepts discussed. This group supervision model requires that the therapist learns about her own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors while engaged in the therapy process, so that she can use her full self in the treatment. This is the group affective learning model applied to group supervision. Object relations theory provides a unique perspective on early trauma and its effects on the internal life of the child and, later, the adult. Early physical and sexual trauma can destroy mental functioning and leave the adult patient with diminished cognitive abilities.
