64th Annual Conference

Thursday, March 8

Morning Open Sessions

10:00 A.M.-1:15P.M.

Session 301

Supervising Group Therapists: What is Most Important?

Chair:

Harold Bernard, Ph.D., ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York

Panelists:      

David Altfeld, Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA, Co-Director, Supervisory Training Program, National Institute for the Psychotherapies, New York, New York
Elaine Cooper, M.S.W., Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA, Clinical Professor, Univ. of California School of Medicine at San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Sherrie Smith, LCSW-R, CGP, FAGPA, Director, Group Therapy Services, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York
 

As with group therapy itself, group supervisors differ greatly in what they emphasize when they work. This panel of senior group supervisors will begin with statements of each panelist's personal/theoretical approach to supervision. There will then be a demonstration supervision group, and each panelist will comment on what has occurred from his/her perspective. The panel will end with dialogue among panelists and with the audience. 

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Understand the enormous variability that exists in supervisory focus and style;
2. Appreciate the therapeutic value of processing countertransference reactions and then using them to facilitate treatment;
3. Make better use of their fantasies, associations, and unconscious/preconscious resonances to the therapeutic material they are presented with.
 

Course References:

1. Alonso, A. (1985) The Quiet Profession: Supervisors of Psychotherapy. New York: Macmillan.
2. Bernard, H.S. & Spitz, H.I. (2006) Training in Group Psychotherapy Supervision. New York: American Group Psychotherapy Association.
3. Bernard,J.M. & Goodyear,R.K. (2004) Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc./Allyn & Bacon.