ABSTRACT
The various theoretical approaches to psychodynamic psychotherapy share an emphasis on supervision as the primary method of teaching and developing therapy skills (Ekstein & Wallerstein, 1958; Fleming & Benedek, 1966; Lambert, 1980). Therefore, the therapist's choice of which patients to discuss in supervision should be considered an important variable with potentially significant impact on both the patients' treatment and the therapist's professional growth. This topic has been essentially unexplored in writings on psychotherapy supervision. In this paper, we will first discuss the importance of the selection of patients for supervision and address the omission of this topic in the literature. We will then look at what has been written about preferred patients and those chosen for supervision. Next, we will consider what we might infer from the scant literature and focus on what might determine the therapist's choice of patients for discussion in supervision. Finally, we will pose questions and make recommendations for future research.
