In spite of the expertise and seniority of the trainers, the growing proliferation of Gestalt centres in Australia and overseas has highlighted a need to develop a more comprehensive framework for supervision. This article will discuss the Gestalt-Humanistic framework of supervision that has its basic origins in the work of R. Tannenbaum, H. Shepard and F. Perls. Some items presented here were also discussed in an article by S. Eisen who focused primarily on redesigning human and global systems. The author acknowledges the above in shaping his ideas for this article. This article is an attempt to begin a process of dialogue about supervision - what is supervision in the new millennium? How do we define supervision for the future? Is the title or role itself open to a shift in name?

LET US DISCUSS FIRST A DEFINITION OF SUPERVISION

In the past, the name supervisor was given to someone who was a senior practitioner or worker who was elevated to the role of overseer of others less experienced staff or students. In most organisations, the role of supervisor that oversees the staff or workers shifted from overseer to middle manager responsible for ensuring that the workers achieved the established goals or tasks designed by the organisation. Little or no attention was given to the personís developmental needs in supervision.

Today, both workers and organisations have changed dramatically. The supervisorís job requires an understanding of complex systems that are constantly in transition. Change is the only stable factor and therefore the role of the supervisor is also changing in keeping with these shifts.

In Gestalt therapy, change and the awareness of the process of change is imbedded in the essence of Gestalt work with individuals, groups and organisations. Gestalt therapy theory was founded on the concept of shifting relations as the organism becomes in contact with the environment.

The therapist then is required to clearly focus on the process of this interactive flow between people, cultures, life-cycles, creative indifference, flexibility, timing, disciplined self-awareness and so on.

Supervision in Gestalt therapy practice is therefore broadly defined as facilitating the process of the therapistís response-ability in working with the client or the group. Gestalt therapy supervision then is a here-and-now process that explores the contact-boundary between the therapist and the client system for the purpose of enabling the therapist to become more creative and fully alive in the therapy session.

This process also brings into awareness the contact-boundary between the supervisor and the supervisee. What is taking place in supervision has a parallel to what is taking place in the therapy session. Making both processes open to dialogue makes the supervisory relationship lively and more authentic as a learning experience for both parties.

In order to prepare ourselves as supervisors for the future, we need to look at a basic framework and invite dialogue about it and discover what will emerge from this dialogue.

Questions:

* From the above statement, how do you see Supervision, different or similar?
* How do you experience your own supervision?
* Are you a supervisor? If so, what is your own definition of Supervision?
* Would you change the name Supervisor?

A PERSPECTIVE FROM GESTALT - THE BACKGROUND

The Gestalt perspective of FIGURE and GROUND developed by Gestalt psychologists and later by Dr F. Perls and other Gestalt therapists has become an increasingly useful model for supervisors.

FIGURE refers to whatever aspects of perception of reality or experience are currently in the foreground of attention. Figure is the explicit part of the process (e.g., when hungry we pay more attention to food than to speech). While GROUND (or background) refers to everything else around the figure, it is more implicit part of the process. In addition, the ground serves as the context for the figure and by its relationship to the figure gives it meaning ( take a look at a painting in an art gallery).

Changes in the figure or ground result in a changed "Gestalt" or the way we perceive what is real and meaningful to us (having learned some Spanish, I feel more at ease to travel to South America).

The Humanistic perspective assumes that in any human system, from the individual to society, there is a tendency for paying attention or to focus on pressures, needs or opportunities and to take for granted or even forget those aspects that are stable. Only under unusual stress, crisis or threat to our survival we stop and consider such deeper questions as "who am I?". "What is this group's function?", "what is our organisation's mission?", etc. At other times we simply coast along and maintain the status quo.

The core characteristics of any human system, therefore, tend to be both aware and unaware. Living organisms are generally guided by patterns and set behaviours that are coded for survival in the environment. However, these basically unaware characteristics do not help the organism to survive if the environment changes (witness the destruction of the dinosaurs). Awareness, the second characteristic, is a way of attending to our experience with the world. This characteristic is crucial if the person will continue to grow and develop new adaptive mechanisms of survival.

In other words, the first characteristic helps us to protect and maintain our values, beliefs and assumptions about the world. While the second characteristic helps us to change and grow.

Finally, another Gestalt-Humanistic perspective is the view that change is a paradox. The more we protect and value our survival skills, the more rigid and useless they become over time. However, the more aware we become as to exactly how we protect ourselves without any fruitful outcomes, the more we are able to generate the energy for change and adopt new survival tools.

This is precisely the place, (the fine line between managing our core survival values and changing them as the situation changes), is the most fertile ground for supervision work. Some call it the Existential Ground.

THE GROUND OF SUPERVISION - DIG AND YOU SHALL FIND

Anyone wishing to become a change agent, manager, supervisor or consultant, must be very aware of the existential ground. In dealing with complex and paradoxical issues, the supervisor requires the skills to work at several of the levels available there and be able to be more flexible and creative than the system he or she is working with.

The flexibility required by the supervisor is much more fluid than the one required by the therapist. The supervisor not only has the proper credentials as a therapist, but also is professing or claiming certain wisdom beyond the therapeutic. The supervisorís vast experience is rich in special skills like consultation, teaching and facilitation. It also brings into play the roles (or parts) like process enabler, evaluator of good practice and so on.

What is most important however, is the supervisorís ability to stand outside the boundaries of the task at hand and be able to examine the whole field from above (the astronautís perspective). Or from the minerís perspective, be able to see the minute details and focus on the obvious.

Both perspectives offer the supervisor an opportunity to discover something new, something different, a fresh point of reference to the session. The supervisorís foreground is precisely this sense of the novel, the exciting, coming from the background of the mundane and difficult in the therapeutic work. The reward is the discovery that something new can emerge and give energy to both parties in the supervision process. The following example shows how one supervisor worked with a case of avoiding personal feelings.

An example of avoidances:

Supervisee: "I am upset about my last session with a client" Begins to tell the story about the session.

Supervisor: " Wait a moment, you said you are upset and you begin to tell me the story - what are you feeling at this moment?"

Supsee: "You want me to say what I am feeling right now?"

Supervisor: " Yes, please do"

Supsee: "I feel angry and upset about myself"

Supervisor: " Perhaps you feel angry and upset about your client also?"

Spsee: " NO, I should do better than I did!"

Supervisor: " You just mentioned two things that you do to punish yourself with. One is to become upset at yourself and the other that you should do better"

Supsee: " AH, I keep doing this every time I lose contact with my client and start thinking about my work ".

Supervisor: "Yes, you have named the two avoidances to contact with client, Retroflection and Introjection, lets discuss this some more now"

THE METHOD OF DISCOVERY - AHA!

The basic principle used in this framework is DISCOVERING THAT SOMETHING NEW IS POSSIBLE. The way to approach this involves three specific concepts from gestalt theory:

1. THE AWARENESS OF PROCESS. This indicates that to practice awareness we need to be in the here and now moment. Or as F. Perls said, "I and Thou, in the Here and Now". We do not interpret, analyse, or give advice. We respect history and the complexity of the inner experience in the person, group or organisation and act as facilitators or enablers of the process that is opening opportunities for self-discovery.
   
2. FIELD THEORY. The concept of field was developed by Kurt Lewin (1951) who borrowed the term from high energy physics. In our terminology it is the ground or context, the unspoken environment that we take for granted and that serves as a resource to the foreground. In other words it is the process of the unknown, the taboos or the invisible factor in the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee.
   
3. BEING IN CONTACT. This means that we encounter ourselves and the human system in an active, contactful and immediate relationship. The assumption here is that the supervisor is as much a learner of the process as the student, the group or the community. However, the supervisor acts as a guide and uses all of the above mentioned tools that focus on the core characteristics, working style, patterns of behaviour and disturbances that block contact and prevent change.
   

Questions:

* Have you had an experience of the AHA in supervision? If so, Describe it.
* Can you think of times that you have experienced a downer in your work. A lack of energy? Describe it.

USING THE GESTALT-HUMANISTIC FRAMEWORK IN PRACTICE

In practical terms, all work with people concerns itself with the development and maintenance of a balanced state or equilibrium between the person and the environment. Both are in constant flux. When conditions in the environment change, then the adjustment to those changes require a shift. This shift may be as simple as seeking a new restaurant when the one we frequented suddenly closed, to a major shift in the way we deal with conflict when we are facing with the prospect of important life changes such as retirement or moving to a new country.

Change always involves at least three levels of shifts. One is at the major target of change (e.g. retirement due to redundancy); the other two being at the level above the target (e.g. redundancy) and at the level below the target (e.g. our feelings about being redundant).

In other words, rather than focus on the "symptom" or "problem" alone, this approach requires that we also pay attention to the field or context from which the "problem" has emerged, the target (person, group, organisation) that is in the foreground and the RELATIONSHIP between the two. In Gestalt we call it the dialogic contact.

According to L. Jacobs (Jacobs 1995), there are two major emphases when describing the nature of the relationship in therapy. The role of the relationship and the characteristics of the relationship. (p.51). In supervision, the role of the relationship refers to the quality of the dialogic) contact between the supervisor and the supervisee and the characteristic of the relationship leading to the betterment of the therapeutic outcome for the client.

In practice, this dialogic contact may be formulated and expressed in three types of supervisory interventions: A basic intervention that will lead to the exploration of the blocks emerging between the therapist and the client; a more complex intervention that may involve a more pro-active and on-going strategic planning such as personal work, further training, group supervision and so on and finally there may be necessary some fundamental interventions such as a paradigm shift that will have an impact on all levels of practice such as personal crises, changing life style or a career change.

Altogether, working on many levels and changing field configurations, allows for a vast variation in ways of working with people. The work is always in the present or actual situation. The dialogue can never be the same, never a routine or reduced to mere technique. Out of the co-created explorations between the supervisor and the supervisee, can emerge a variety of possible solutions leading to new learning, growth and discovery.

THE SUPERVISORY PROCESS - GOING WITH THE FLOW

The Gestalt-Humanistic framework as applied to supervision assumes that it is a progression to another level of the counselling and/or therapeutic relationship. As a member of the human system, the worker, therapist or counsellor, is experiencing difficulties or is stuck in some way. He decides to ask for help. The presenting issue or problem is the FIGURE. The supervisor, consultant, guide, takes that request in and then proceeds to establish a process where the parties concerned will develop an awareness of the GROUND from which the issue, concern or problem has arisen. Having done that, he or she facilitates new ways of discovering the solutions that lie in the relationship between the two.

For example, if the supervision process moves too close to the personís life issues, it enters the area of psychotherapy, if it moves more towards the workplace, it enters the area of organisational development and if it moves more towards theory, it enters the area of continuing education. The field is enormous and much is at stake.

However, the supervisory process aims to be flexible. In the Gestalt-Humanistic perspective we make no assumptions to the right or wrong way. That does not mean that anything will do. On the contrary, the supervisor has a vast reservoir of options to choose from. The choice depends on the person, the relationship, the context and the awareness continuum from which emerge the conditions for change. The supervisor also takes into account all the variables and conditions in the field that include the individual, the group, the organisation and the global influences in the environment such as economic and political shifts.

Since the field encompasses all the visible and invisible factors, gestalt theory helps us in understanding this process by focusing our awareness on the emerging parts or figures. The following paragraphs will examine these parts in more detail.

THE PERSON IN SUPERVISION

Clinical supervision is an intrinsic part of being a psychotherapist. Embedded in the practice is the need for on-going examination of the process and content of our work. For example, we find that blocks and barriers in the practice emerge when the therapist exhausts the previously learned skills and techniques and finds himself losing the flexibility and creativity that was there early in the work. At the same time he tries hard to maintain the status quo of his work.

The supervisorís role here is to value at first the legitimacy of each personís way of experiencing the world and recognise the patterns that are blocking creative work. Next, the supervisor explores the difficulties with an open and non-judgemental attitude and provides authentic feed-back. The supervisor also includes relevant feelings and thoughts of his own about the supervisory relationship and proceeds to explore with the supervisee the dissociated parts (those that want to change and those that want to maintain things as they are). Usually these parts need time for reintegration in the person to begin to work as inner allies and not as enemies. This inner work in supervision includes the relationship factors with the self (dreams and fantasies); the relationship with the client (projections and transferences); the small group (early family patterns); the organisation and the larger environmental field. Each aspect will be discussed below.

THE SUB-SELVES

The person has many parts or sub-selves. The self is variable, fluid and is the point of contact with the environment. Yet, the self is also a pattern of organised behaviours that we call a personality. (This is who I am). If a person is split or dis-integrated, then the sub-selves do not function in harmony and the person finds it more difficult to be in touch with the outer world.

In a supervisory session, the supervisor examines how the person's so-called "sub-selves" or parts of the persona interact with others in the environment. The presence of these inner sub-selves is well documented in the works of Eric Berne (adult, parent and child), Freud (ego, id and super-ego) and F. Perls (top-dog and under-dog) just to name a few. An awareness of these sub- selves can provide the supervisor with a rich perspective for understanding the many aspects of human experience, behaviour and interaction with others. This offers a powerful tool for the supervisor in working with his or her client(s) to understand the complex and reciprocal influence between the sub-self dynamics and among other system levels (F. Perls, 1973). Working with the sub-selves in dialogue is a common Gestalt practice.

Example:

Supervisor: You want to integrate and expand your work more, is that correct?

Therapist in Supervision (Supervisee): Yes, I am currently working with a client that is new to Gestalt Therapy and I have difficulty in using some open seat techniques with her...

Supervisor: What was the issue you were working on?

Therapist: I wanted to work on a piece of a dream that she was presenting and she only wanted to talk about the dream and not play the parts in it

Supervisor: So what did you do?

Therapist: I showed her how to play different parts of the dream myself and she observed ..

Supervisor: And what part in her dream are you playing?

Therapist: (Seems thoughtful)I see, I played the good therapist

Supervisor: And was that useful in exploring her dream?

Therapist: Now that I am aware of my own part in this, I am not so sure...

Questions:

* How would you highlight the sub-selves emerging in the example above?
* What are the issues that are calling your attention as a supervisor?
* What is your own need to be aware of the sub-self that is supervising?

THE SELF IN RELATIONSHIP

This term refers to the systemic entity composed of two or more individuals in relationship. By studying these patterns of relationship, we may determine the characteristics, structures and patterns that define a relationship. Relationships that are coercive, competitive, distrustful block the ability to be adaptive, effective and be able to respond to the changes successfully.
Gestalt-Humanistic supervision views relationships as dialogical, authentic and process oriented, walking on the edge and not taking for granted the security of any technique or strategy or theoretical assumption. The essence of this process is the focus on the rich and the varied, always shifting structure of the whole person. Buber (1958) named this process I-Thou.

The terms I-Thou and I-It indicate the reciprocal nature of our orientation. They create a context for the attitude with which others approach us. A genuine openness to others tends to elicit a reciprocal response. If others feel objectified by us, it is likely they will approach us in an objectifying manner. The attitude with which I approach another is also the attitude with which I approach myself. If I value others, that reflects back on my valuing myself. If I objectify others, then I will objectify myself. (Hycner, 1988)

THE TEAM - THE CLOSER RELATIONS

When working within a team environment, the supervisorís focus may be on the primary relationships that exist within the teamís dynamics and the patterns of communication that enhance or hinder team work. One of the most interesting patterns that frequently emerge in team work is the individual members family of origin unfinished business.

Teams are often called family groups, promotions and competition engenders sibling rivalry and authority figures may represent old family members that have had strong impact on the individuals in the team and now tend to be projected on the team leaders.

Similarly the behaviour of the supervisor may be patterned after early experiences he or she may have had with parents or other members in the family of origin.

Interactions in teams are therefore extremely potent. They serve as a basis for learning the social skills of survival for individuals within the group. These include information exchange, performance evaluation, modelling proper standards, shaping behaviours, problem solving and maintenance of the wellbeing of the participants.

Supervising a team for achieving the identified organisational and individual goals is one of the most challenging ways of working and gaining experience in group dynamics.

THE GROUP - MANY MORE

There is a growing awareness among service agencies and corporations that it is people that make the difference between good service delivery and poor service delivery to clients or customers.

There is a growing consensus that people perform better in small groups and the group is a medium of dealing with a multitude of needs that emerge and affects how the individual performs in the workplace. Self nourishment, friendships, partnerships on the one end of the social scale; to saving time, develop new skills and create more efficient service delivery on the other end.

In agencies or institutions that do not have the time or funds for individual supervision, it is common to develop peer-supervision groups. In this group situation, the individuals are exposed to more resources and different creative options not available in individual supervision. Sharing their issues and experimenting with various solutions within the small group, members can open up to new perspectives and emerging gestalts. Often work in a small group promotes more energy and excitement in the participants and personal narratives can be challenged with alternative ways of working presented and experimented within the group. Interventions that require group support, demand feedback form colleagues or challenge old practice assumptions need the setting of a group. However, it is important to note that peer or group supervision is not for everyone.

Here is a little role play you may wish to attempt in your own peer-supervision group:

If a member has a problem or is feeling stuck in what we may call an impasse, ask this member to play the role of the client while someone in the group volunteer to play the Supervisor. Group members may take turns playing the client, or the supervisor and attempt different interventions suggested by the group. The role-plays may be videotaped and discussed later in a reflection session.

In addition to learning the skills of group maintenance and support, the supervisee will learn to assess the group dynamics and will be able to relate these to the client situation.

Finally, the goal of group supervision is to develop a collective clinical wisdom that can be shared with the individuals and add more technical and strategic knowledge to the constantly changing field.

Question:

* Do you have a group supervision experiment to share with us?

THE ORGANISATION - THE WORKING FIELD

From the study of the group there evolved the study and development of an awareness of the organisational field. While the early T-groups were developed to get the group "trained" to change the individual's behaviour in dramatic ways, these experiences led gestalt therapists and training consultants to begin implementing the gestalt approach in organisations. So, much of the learning for supervisors progressed from developing individuals to developing teams to developing the context of organisations themselves.

Organisations have traditionally functioned as stable entities until recently. The globalization of many organisations and companies has created a demand for a more flexible, multi-skilled manager. People at all levels of organisations began to undergo re-training and development that led to more open and interdependent structures such as teams and co-operative ventures to achieve the desired goals. Managers have learned to be more pro-active and sensitive to the environmental contexts in which the organisation lives, works and produces the goods and/or services.

Gestalt therapy principles are being adopted in organisations in many western countries and in the new countries that have risen after the fall of communism. Such principles as awareness, holistic thinking, paradoxical view of change, self-regulating systems and so on have been recently adopted by many authors writing books dealing with organisational change.(Nevis, 1995).

Groups of professionals may come to supervision from different organisations that have joint ventures. Others may come from same fields of practice but from different organisations, such
as doctors from different hospitals. Others may come from different fields but same organisation, like community services. Finally groups may come from same organisation and same field of practice, such as a marital counselling agency.

GLOBAL SOCIETY - THE UNDISCOVERED SELF

The notion of THINK GLOBALLY - ACT LOCALLY makes a lot of sense today. We are increasingly becoming aware of the larger global society as the ultimate context of everything we do. We can no longer ignore the activities and decisions that are made half a globe away. We can no longer tolerate the immense ecological damage done by the Eastern European countries to its land, water and air. Business groups in Australia can not ignore the intense competition of the third world countries for global markets and who often produce quality goods at a lower price. Communication technologies increasingly blur distances and make any location on earth accessible to business, any information available to research, any potential market becoming local. Internet is one example . The distinction of what is local and what is global is no longer meaningful. And so we are learning the implications of what we do in global terms and what is the effect of our local work on global events and on the whole of the world environment.

Global awareness means having strong feelings and knowledge that we are part of the whole earth community and are responsible for and not standing apart from the planet Earth and all that it contains. One way to achieve our collective dreams and reality goals for the world is to begin to re-process our inner "pollution and garbage" - that is old, outdated paradigms. This sort of "recycling" on a global scale will bring about possibilities to solve the many problems and issues of the world. The world has become a GESTALT.

The supervisor ( perhaps the name itself is archaic) in the global context must be able to manage change in a very different way from those who preceded him or her only a few years ago. This person will be able to develop both people and organisations that can function as self-regulating and self-directed systems. Many more opportunities will be needed and created to enable people to satisfy not only their financial need but also to be able to grow, develop and achieve a greater degree of self-realisation. The supervisor- facilitator- enabler will be asked to become a model for those seeking and demanding this greater ideal of global participant.

CONCLUSION

In this article the focus was on the development of a broad framework for Gestalt-Humanistic supervision. In keeping with the gestalt-holistic philosophy of expanding awareness as a healing process, the framework itself was allowed to emerge as a FIGURE from a broad BACKGROUND of several perspectives and ideas that go beyond the narrow view of supervision. Supervision that is normally conducted with one person in an office environment.

A. Williams in his book Visual and Active Supervision has a statement that is useful to conclude with. The development of clinical wisdom is approached, where possible, through supervisor roles, supervision focus and visual and active technique. These methods play out the therapy system so that all of it can be experienced simultaneously. Super-vision is a vision offered to trainees so that they may see; second time around, the process in which they are involved; it does not mean the vision of the supervisor being imposed on the trainee. (Introduction to the book)

It is hoped that the reader will find the above gestalt bits on supervision useful items to chew on and develop some clinical wisdom to improve and enliven the therapeutic practice of staff and students in training. For those who supervise others, whether in the private office or in an organisation, this material is offered as a first step on a longer journey of discovery that something new is always possible in supervision.

REFERENCES AND READINGS

Buber M. (1958). I and Thou. ( R.G.Smith translator), N.Y. C. Scribner & Sons.
Eisen, Saul Redesigning Human and Global Systems. Paper presented at the Academy of Joint Divisional Conference on Organisational Dimensions of Global Change, Cleveland, Ohio, May 3-6, 1995.
Enright, John (1984) Change and Resistance, reprinted in The Leader-Manager, Wilson Learning Co.
Hycner, R. & Jacobs, L. (1995) The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt Journal Press.
Lewin, K. (1952) Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers, London.
Mindell, A. (1995) Sitting in the Fire, Lao-Tse Press, Oregon, USA.Nevis, E. (1995) Organisational Consulting: A Gestalt Approach. G.I. of Cleveland Press.
Perls, F.S., Hefferline, R.F., and Goodman, P. (1951) Gestalt Therapy, Julian Press, NY.
Williams. A. ( 1995) Visual and Active Supervision. Norton Co. N.Y.

OTHER RECOMMENDED READINGS

Hycner, R. (1988) Between Person and Person, Gestalt Journal Pub.
Mintz, E.E. (1983) Gestalt Approaches to Supervision in The Gestalt Journal, Vol.VI, No.1.
Shepard, H. (1965) Changing Interpersonal and Intergroup Relations in Organisations, in J. March (ed) Handbook of Organisations, Chicago.
Tannenbaum, R. et al. (1985) Human Systems Development, S. F. Jossey-Bass.