The Emergence of a Supervisor: Integrating Professional and Personal Selves of the Therapist

There has been little systematic research and personal accounts of therapists' and supervisors’ personal and professional development once they qualified in the profession. Addressing this gap through using system’s theory and excerpts from sessions, photography and autobiographical elements, the book documents the therapist’s and families’ six-year journey of reciprocal growth. The story starts with the initial “handicapped” responses: the therapist’s failure and the families’ life-threatening non-compliance. Eventually, the therapist and families develop “handi-capable” responses: families mastering their lives and the illness, and the therapist's increasing competency, finally giving birth to the supervisor. The book examines the consequences of this developmental process for training, supervision, and continuing education. The author concludes that her story is a personal contribution of how therapists’ and supervisors’ competence develops through life-long complex, multifactor integration of professional and personal life experiences and transformations.