Sitting in the Hot Seat: Being with Philip Bromberg

Liz Halsted: I'm honored to be moderating this panel in this conference1 that honors Philip Bromberg’s many contributions. Philip had many professional roles as analyst, theorist, author, teacher, supervisor, and colleague. Each role he occupied fully, bringing himself, the impact of his ideas, and his unique ability to build relationships and relational experiences. His innovative theories and approaches were born from his character and his way of living and relating to people.

Supervisees had the unique experience of having Philip as a teacher and having the supervisory relationship as an experiential vehicle, clarifying relational opportunities and possibilities for themselves and for their work with their patients. The hot seat title was created as a thematic template primarily referring to the experience of supervision with Philip. It was also what many of us in Philip’s supervision groups called the chair we would sit in when it was our turn to present. We all recall the intensity and vividness of our encounters and the ways that Phillip’s demand for authenticity could feel challenging. The experience was that you couldn’t hide.

As our group met in preparation for this conference, we reflected on Phillip’s approach to the timing of interventions. The intention was to be present and sensitive to the interaction such that one could try to sense the temperature of the engagement. The hope is to time an intervention when the affective iron is hot, but not too hot. My thought is that the hot seat aspect of our experiences with Phillip has

deepened for each of us and expanded our capacity to encounter and endure the deep intensity of the personal.

Each of our preparatory sessions became spontaneously, and I would say to our surprise, a deeply emotio