ABSTRACT
The effects of the frame of supervision are everywhere. Recognized explicitly or not, frame management is a continual activity of the supervisor and, to a lesser extent, the supervisee, and frame issues are remarkably common in supervision. As an ongoing behavioural input, then, the supervisor's frame-related attitudes, decisions, and actions exert powerful effects on the second unconscious system of the supervisee and in turn on his or her therapeutic work — and personal life. More rarely, therapists and supervisors will be obliged to react to the frame-securing or frame-modifying efforts of a patient or supervisee, respectively. Systemic thinking implies that all of the events in supervision and all of their effects on the supervised therapy receive inputs from both parties to supervision — shared responsibility for all successes and failures is the rule. The needs for safety and holding and for a stable, uncontaminated relationship are not matters of rigidity.
