ABSTRACT
Emotions are a fundamental source of information and knowledge that help build understanding and responses to situations. This chapter provides a description of emotional containment, and then provides therapeutic ways to work with shame, anger, anxiety, grief, overwhelm and disappointment which the author has observed as the primary emotions that supervisees present with in response to human service work.
A deliberate focus and enquiry into emotional responses can help workers process and make sense of them. Increased self-awareness of emotions and their management contribute greater emotional knowledge which can be applied back to the workplace. Working emotionally also requires the supervisor to be conscious of, and attending to, their own emotional state especially when providing a container for the emotional expression of others. A failure to do this will likely contribute to the supervisor being less emotionally open and even avoiding emotional discussion for fear of being triggered or activated personally. This is another important reminder of the energy exchange that occurs in supervision and that the supervisor’s own supervision is of an equally reflective and therapeutic nature.
