Looking Back Through the Looking Glass: Reflections on the Identity Development of a Beginning Therapist and Her Late Adolescent Patient

This article attempts to offer a response to the therapist's written exploration of her first adolescent treatment case and a reflection on the supervision of doctoral trainees as the cornerstone in the education of the effective and efficient practice of clinical psychology. The author revisits the supervisory relationship as serving a formative function in the professional development of the trainee. A trusting collaboration is established over the course of their work together and helped deepen dyadic communication on a number of topics, including establishing a theoretical approach to guide the therapeutic actions, guiding the use of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy techniques given both the patient's presenting concerns and his developing personality organization, exploring multiple identifications that impacted treatment effectiveness and the therapeutic approach, and uncovering the parallel processes between the treatment proper and the supervisory relationship. The author opines that, in retrospect, certain clinical issues could have been worked through more directly in support of the supervision and the treatment and possible alternative actions are illuminated. The supervisor concludes with reflections on the impact that culture, race, and privilege had on the treatment relationship and the work of the supervision alike.