Case Consultation & Supervision

 

Patients often enact or recreate their symptoms and problematic relationship patterns within the therapeutic relationship. This can be mobilized when therapists persistently and gently invite the exploration of unconscious mixed feelings and clarify the patient’s resistance to this process. The therapist’s inevitable participation in this dynamic offers a new pathway into the patient’s inner world.

 

As therapists engage with patients’ problematic relational patterns, they inevitably stir up difficult feelings within themselves as well. It requires both skill and emotional capacity to utilize these stirred-up feelings to foster understanding and facilitate change. The phenomenon of parallel feelings and patterns – often referred to as parallel process – can arise during clinical consultation, providing rich insights into the challenge of clinical thinkings.

 

Consultation is most beneficial when therapists speak freely and experience one self’s feelings openly. Therefore, I work to establish the mutual trust and professional intimacy necessary for open communication. I strive to create a framework that facilitates the exploration of transference, countertransference, enactments, and parallel processes. Skill development within this framework occurs spontaneously as emotional capacities are built.

 

Sessions typically shift fluidly between process and technique, theory, and practical clinical guidance. I prefer to review videos of therapists working with their patients, as this leads to a more objective consultation process. I primarily, but not exclusively, draw from the theoretical model of ISTDP, as relevant to the therapist, patient, and clinical material.

 

The fee for clinical consultation is $425 for a 60 to 75-minute appointment. Small group consultation is available for $535 per 90 to 105 minutes, with the fee divided among participants. Most consultation sessions are conducted online via Zoom.