TPC-Journal-V2-Issue3

The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 3 206 Clinical Supervision Pearson (2006) calls for supervisors to be “skilled practitioners” (p. 250) and integrate their major roles (teacher, counselor and consultant). This encompasses a combination of sharing information with supervisees regarding theory, indicating to supervisees how they may be reacting to their clients’ narrative, and assessing the efficacy of the supervisees’ strategies with their clients. For example, the supervisee’s tendency to rescue their clients and prevent them from expressing their most difficult feelings should be addressed during supervision. Pearson acknowledges this is not an easy task for supervisors who are either solely instructional-oriented or consulting-oriented. Pearson insists that “applying a psychotherapy-driven approach in supervision incorporates the best of both models [the instruction-oriented model and the consulting-oriented model]” for the supervisee (p. 247). The psychodynamic-oriented supervision model is one of the supervision approaches, among others, that is consistent with Pearson’s integrated model of supervision (teacher, counselor and consultant). Conclusion Experiencing losses is part of living. Unacknowledged disappointments may lead to narcissistic vulnerability—the compulsive use of maladaptive defenses in a futile attempt to disguise the painful experience of loss. But the pain does not go away. Instead, resistance to grieving losses fosters more pain and isolation from oneself and others. When some men neither acknowledge nor begin to grieve their early losses, they increase the likelihood of remaining in a regressive developmental stage that includes sexual immaturity. As the result, children may be neglected; mothers may be perceived as the culprit to one’s inner conflicts, and female partners may be experienced as responsible for secondary impotence. The payoff for these men’s denial is quite attractive—to distract themselves from recognizing their wounds and their responsibility to heal their wounds. This secondary gain—the distraction to their vulnerability—may be difficult to resist and may show up in counseling in the form of transference. Appreciating and using transference in the counseling session for the client’s benefit remains the tenet of the psychodynamic counseling approach. Implications for counselors include their committed efforts to be aware of their own unresolved issues, to grieve their losses, and to become comfortable with the dynamics involved in transference. It has been said that counselors cannot take their clients where they have never been. The implication for supervisors is to stay focused and detect resistance among supervisees in exploring the supervisee’s issues and their tendency to bring those issues to the counseling session. This resistance may be either explicit or implicit. It is only through working on their own recovery that counselors may guide their clients through their respective journeys to mental health. References Baker, J. (2000). The importance of finding one’s voice: Father-hunger, self-silencing, and eating disorders (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville. Gabbard, G. (2009). Transference and countertransference: Developments in the treatment of narcissistic personality disorder. Psychiatric Annal s, 39 , 129–136. Gauthier, M. (2010). Comment on Herzog’s “fathers and play.” Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis , 18 , 113–118. Goss, P. (2006). Discontinuities in the male psyche: Waiting, deadness and disembodiment. Archetypal and clinical approaches. Journal of Analytical Psychology , 51 , 681–699. Hall, C. (1954). A primer of Freudian psychology . New York, NY: World Publishing. Hartmann, U. (2009). Sigmund Freud and his impact on our understanding of male sexual dysfunction. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 6 , 2332–2339. Herzog, J. (2001). Father hunger: Explorations with adults and children. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press. Herzog, J. (2009). Father hunger and narcissistic deformation. Psychiatric Annals, 39 , 156–163.