An Attachment Narrative Approach to Systemically Informed Supervision Practice

Abstract

This chapter is written primarily for supervisors of qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, and also has relevance for the supervision of pre-qualification practice. The focus in this chapter is emotional safety and the co-construction of safe places for reflection and for the understanding, containment and exploration of doubt, anxiety and uncertainty in our therapeutic work. The framework outlined here for the promotion of emotional safety and relational resilience is an integration of three major schools of thought: modern attachment theory with narrative theory and systemic theory and practice (Dallos & Vetere, Systemic therapy and attachment narratives: Applications across a range of clinical settings, London, 2009; Vetere, Origins and originality in family therapy and systemic practice. EFTA Book Series Volume I, Berlin, 2017; Vetere & Dallos, Interacting selves: Systemic solutions for personal and professional development in counselling and psychotherapy, London, 2016). The focus in modern attachment theory on interactive emotion regulation processes and non-conscious relational responding will be linked with the focus in narrative theory on coherent narrating as skill development. Thus we are concerned with understanding the conditions of emotional safety that enable us as children and young people as we grow into adulthood to use all our memory resources of thought, feeling, action and intention to integrate experience, to reflect on experience, our own and others, and to communicate it in a way that others can understand and respond as appropriate. The triangular nature of supervision relationships, i.e. therapist–client; supervisor–supervisee; and supervisor–supervisee-client/s will form the context in this chapter for systemic thinking in supervision and practice.