Parallel process

{{Short description|Phenomenon noted in clinical supervision of therapy}}

Parallel process is a phenomenon noted in clinical supervision by therapist and supervisor, whereby the therapist recreates, or parallels, the client's problems by way of relating to the supervisor. The client's transference and the therapist's countertransference thus re-appear in the mirror of the therapist/supervisor relationship.

Origins and nature

Attention to parallel process first emerged in the nineteen-fifties. The process was termed reflection by Harold Searles in 1955,[http://www.ericdigests.org/1995-1/process.htm Parallel process in supervision] and two years later T. Hora (1957) first used the actual term parallel process – emphasising that it was rooted in an unconscious identification with the client/patient which could extend to tone of voice and behaviour.S. Power, Nursing Supervision (1999) p. 162 The supervisor thus enacts the central problem of the therapy in the supervision, potentially opening up a process of containment and solution, first by the supervisor and then by the therapist.G. O. Gabbard, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) p. 195

Alternatively, the supervisor's own countertransference may be activated in the parallel process, to be reflected in turn between supervisor and consultant, or back into the original patient/helper dyad.P. Clarkson, On Psychotherapy (1993) p. 202 Even then, however, careful examination of the material may still illuminate the original therapeutic difficulty, as reflected in the parallel situation.G. O. Gabbard, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) p. 196-197

Parallel process

Origins and nature

See also

References

Further reading