Bibliosupervision: A Creative Supervision Technique

This column is designed to underscore relationally based creative interventions used by counselors and psychotherapists in their practices. Our intention is to provide examples of novel, innovative ways of working with clients in their efforts to deepen self-awareness and their connections with others. Although the interventions within this column will be presented in a linear “how-to” manner, an essential premise of this column is that interventions submitted for publication have a contextual and relational basis. Basic to this column is the therapeutic focus of working through latent hurts and impediments to our clients' health and happiness. Client goals generally involve creating the requisite emotional space needed for genuine relational choice for connection to manifest. If you have created a useful therapy tool, or if you have adapted an existing creative tool that you would like to share with readers, please follow submission guidelines in the author information packet available at http://www.creativecounselor.org/Journal.html This article offers a guide for bibliosupervision, a creative intervention that can be used when supervising counseling students. Bibliosupervision assists students in developing trust with the supervisor, as well as trust in their own abilities as emerging counselors. This supervisory process promotes the exploration of themes that might otherwise be intimidating for or inaccessible to students. Bibliosupervision draws from the theoretical and therapeutic constructs of bibliotherapy and deals with identification, catharsis, and insight as these apply to situations within which students are learning and practicing counseling skills. A protocol, guideline, and adaptations are offered as well as a suggested book list that addresses supervision themes.