| Abstract: | At the site of interpersonal conflict resides the potential for learning. This paper presents psychodynamic theories, empirical research and a fictional case study of psychotherapy group supervision. Supervision is discussed in terms of teaching and learning, triangular relations, and group and organizational perspectives. We examine the interconnectedness of patterns of distress that emerge within dynamic relational systems at the levels of the macro‐social, organizational, group and individual. The concepts of equivalence, parallel process and reflection process provide frameworks for this discussion. We explore the constraints and dynamic influence of the organization upon the supervision relationship and the ethical tensions that construct im/possible positions for the supervisor. The case study tells a fictional story of a supervision group situated in an organizational context – a university psychotherapy education programme. A collapse of the group into complementarity, that is into polarized conflicted positions, proffers a vitalizing opportunity for learning. Through the clinical discussion, we reveal how this is contingent on the group's capacity to think together about the meaning of their struggle and to transcend a binary conflict and achieve ‘the third’. |
