Resolving Therapeutic Impasses by Using the Supervisor's Countertransference

The traditional role-set of the clinical social work supervisor has grown to be much more complex. From the exclusive position of teacher, administrator, and overseer she is now an integral part of a system wherein she is influenced not only by the therapist, client, and her own promptings but is a prime source of feedback to the client through the supervisee.As clinical social workers have shifted their conceptualization of therapy to a two-person psychology, this perspective has emerged as part of the supervisory process. Now the supervisor's countertransference responses to the supervisee, to his client, and to their interaction have assumed importance in supervisory work. This article is an attempt to demonstrate through case illustrations how the supervisor's disclosure of countertransference responses to the supervisee can strengthen the supervisory alliance which then enables the client and therapist to resolve therapeutic impasses.     

Book reviews

Clinical Social Work Journal -     

Choosing among practice modalities

Summary Because of the proliferation of treatment modalities during the past decade or so, the social worker, after diagnosing his client or client-system can choose among many possible treatment models. In order to individualize the person-situation constellation as much and as well as possible, a rigorous conceptual framework is needed for this task. Many criteria will evolve as social workers expend their efforts in this direction. This paper has extracted two criteria from classical social work theory, the client's level of psychosocial maturation and his state of resistance and applied them to family therapy, group treatment, short-term treatment, and crisis intervention.     

A psychosocial view of social deviancy

By offering negative sanctions for certain types of behavior, a society preserves its stability and reaffirms its norms. What is labeled as deviant varies from social context to social context. The social worker should not be preoccupied with deviant behavior per se, but with the individual, himself. He should treat the deviant within the same metapsychological perspective that he utilizes for the treatment of any patient. He studies the patient's wishes, conflicts, and life story, and particularly focuses on where psychosexual maturation has been halted. Treatment of the deviant patient or client within a solid social work perspective seeks to offer a maturational experience.Address to New York State Society of Clinical Social Workers, May 5, 1974.