Authors, Artists, and Social Constructionism: A Case Study of Narrative Supervision

Many family therapists have incorporated social constructionist and narrative ideas into their work with clients. These ideas em-phasize postmodern tenets of collaboration, non-directiveness, and multiple perspectives. Although these approaches have become com-mon in therapy, they are also useful in supervision. This article dis-cusses how social constructionism can be applied in supervision, both as content to be taught and as a philosophy to be applied. A case study is presented that offers examples of using social construc-tionist philosophy and techniques in family therapy supervision. Suggestions for supervisors and therapists are offered. A distinguishing aspect of marriage and family therapy (MFT) clinical training is its emphasis on interactive supervision. Considerable time is spent helping therapists develop under the guidance of live and consulting supervisors. Nevertheless, supervision is not often discussed explicitly in the family ther-apy journals (Hawley, Bailey, & Pennick, 2000). This is unfortunate, as the supervision process is complex and merits thoughtful discussion. There are numerous ways of doing supervision, but few concrete guidelines on what “good ” supervision consists of (Anderson, Schlossberg, & Rigazio-DiGilio, 2000). The complexity of the process is evident in that some therapists re-port more difficulties understanding their supervisor’s expectations than their clients ’ problems (Tyler & Tyler, 1985). SUPERVISION, STORIES, AND SYSTEMS One of the challenging aspects of supervision is the number of individuals in-volved. Each person in the supervisory room, as well as the clients discussed