The Supervision Study Program (SSP) of the Psychotherapy Institute has been providing intensive training in supervision and consultation since 1986. This program is a unique, two-year study program for experienced clinicians who are interested in furthering their knowledge of the theory and process of supervision and consultation. One of the oldest such programs in the nation, it is the only one of its kind in the Bay Area. This year, the SSP is sponsoring a six-hour course, offering models for both individual and group supervision.

In the morning, Joan Sarnat will present The Supervisory Dyad: A Contemporary Psychodynamic Approach, and in the afternoon Leslye Russell will present Part of You Pours Out of Me: Affective Learning in Group Supervision.

Joan Sarnat’s presentation will start from the premise that traditional models of supervision, which emphasize a didactic approach, are insufficient for training therapists to work in contemporary relational therapeutic modalities. She will introduce symposium participants to a model of supervision that was specifically designed to facilitate development of the intersubjectively skillful therapist. By acknowledging the supervisory dyad as an important relationship in itself, and a relationship to which the supervisor contributes in complex and often unconscious ways, the supervisor demonstrates elements of the approach that she is trying to teach. The medium of supervision becomes the message.

In order to create a context for appreciating what is innovative in this supervisory model, Dr. Sarnat will compare and contrast several psychodynamic models of supervision. She will then demonstrate her approach through a live consultation to a supervisor. This exercise will generate material through which we will explore together this supervisory model’s “take” on authority relations, regression, the teach/threat boundary, and parallel processes within the supervisory relationship.

The morning will end with facilitated small group discussions, giving participants the opportunity to examine more closely how the material presented can be applied to their individual supervisory situations.

For the afternoon session, Leslye Russell will speak on group supervision using the Affective Learning Model. This model rests on the assumption that affects are the motivating force and integrative route to the self’s organization at all levels: in the mind, in the neuropsychological functioning of the brain, in relationships and in groups. Conscious and unconscious affects are the source of power in group life—sometimes creative and generative and sometimes terrifying and destructive. Ms. Russell will use film clips to create a context and offer an opportunity for applying affective learning concepts in the afternoon session.

Joan Ellen Sarnat, Ph.D., ABPP, is a psychologist-psychoanalyst in private practice in Berkeley. She is a Personal and Supervising Analyst and a member of the faculty at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is a supervisor at The Psychotherapy Institute and facilitates a consultation group for supervisors at Access Institute. Dr. Sarnat has coauthored, with Mary Gail Frawley O’Dea, The Supervisory Relationship: A Contemporary Psychodynamic Approach (Guilford Press, 2000).

Leslye Russell, MFT, is a faculty member and supervisor at The Psychotherapy Institute where she has led supervision, professional development and didactic groups for many years. She is also a fellow of the International Psychotherapy Institute of Washington, D.C. She has taught on a variety of topics at TPI and NCSPP and other institutions in the Bay Area. Most recently she taught courses on “Contemporary Views of the Oedipal Conflict” and“Hysteria.” Her most recent publication,“The Flaneur and the Analysand” (fort da, Spring 2003) explores the subject of free association which she sees as a daunting but necessary method for group supervision. Ms. Russell is in private practice in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Directions and Parking:

Preservation Park, a group of restored Victorian buildings, is located in downtown Oakland, between Castro Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and between 12th and 14th Streets. There is a large parking lot whose entrance is on Jefferson Sreet between 11th and 12th Streets.

From CA-24 or I-580, take the Downtown Oakland exit onto I-980 West. Take the 18th St exit and continue straight on Brush St to 14th St. Turn L at 14th St, turn R at Martin Luther King Jr Wy, turn R at 13th Street into Preservation Park. To park in the lot, continue on MLK, turn left at 11th, left on Jefferson, and left at the parking lot entrance in the middle of the block.

From I-880 North, exit at I-980 East toward Berkeley/Walnut Creek. Take the 11th St. exit and continue straight on Castro St. to 14th St. Turn R at 14th St, turn R at Martin Luther King Jr Wy, turn R at 13th Street into Preservation Park. To park in the lot, continue on MLK, turn left at 11th, left on Jefferson, and left at the parking lot entrance in the middle of the block.