ABSTRACT
Supervision is an essential component of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and of Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (STPP). In the initial supervision, there can be discussion of what is to be considered as deliberate self-harm or taken as evidence of suicidality, and how this fits into the policy and management of risk in the therapist’s multidisciplinary team. The necessity to support the therapist’s exploration of his or her countertransference response to the patient is a feature of all psychoanalytic supervision. Clinical discussion of STPP parent work is recommended as part of good clinical governance around the patient and family. As with the supervision of psychotherapy, supervision or a work discussion group for parent-work cases provides a space for the clinician to engage in a third arena of thinking. The supervisor should have a high level of training in psychoanalytic principles and conceptual frameworks and significant relevant clinical experience.
