Supervised case experience in supportive psychotherapy: suggestions for trainers

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ guidelines for psychotherapy training (Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008a) emphasise the need for psychiatric trainees to become better trained in the psychological therapies. Suggestions for training include supervised case experience in supportive psychotherapy. In considering the local arrangements for psycho therapy training, we became interested in how training in supportive psychotherapy could be delivered. Discussions with local consultants suggested that although many considered them­ selves to be practising something akin to supportive psychotherapy in their everyday work, there was a lack of confidence in offering supervision. Further, a national report on implementation of training (Clarke 2005) identified that more thought needed to be given to the concept of supportive psychotherapy and how it might be supervised. Mitchison (2007) suggested that consultant psychiatrists might feel more confident as supervisors if they had a clear account of what was required of them. It has been suggested that obstacles to training in the USA are that the literature fails to clearly describe supportive psychotherapy (Pinsker 1994) and that there is little guidance on how to teach it (Douglas 2008). It is likely that similar factors are discouraging trainers in the UK from offering supervised case experience.