Page 214 [214]
OCR
YASMIN ÁKSU Moreover, the German term ‘supervision’ — as it is used in this paper — usually comes without any specification of field, such as ‘clinical’ or ‘counseling’. In English the term ‘supervision’ alone would suggest a relationship between an employee and his/her superior with a focus on leading, giving instructions, evaluating the employee’s performance, and the like, while in German the term ‘supervision’ is used only to describe the specific counseling format that is referred to in this article. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Supervision (DGSv, ‘German Association for Supervision’) views supervision as a “scientifically established and practiceoriented concept that is bound by ethics and used for counseling/consulting individuals and organizations in work environments”? and that “addresses questions, problems, areas of concern, conflicts and example cases of everyday professional life.”* The functions and purposes of supervision are supposed to increase self-reflection, relieve tension and pressure, and decrease burnout risks by dealing with and actively solving intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. Particularly the requirement of problem solving is quite controversial, since most supervisors do not view themselves as paid problem-solvers but as assistants in highlighting problems and the factors in their developments. On the same note, stemming from the humanistic, emancipatory psychoanalytic/ psychotherapeutic movement of the mid-20" century* which strongly influenced all ‘helping professions’ in Germany, there is a general and quite explicit agreement that supervision is supposed to be socio-critical, taking into account adverse workplace conditions according to systemic points of view. It is also supposed to be loyal to the client’s goals and not the organization’s goals (of performance enhancement or increased productivity) and to be particularly closely tied to academic research, i.e. to research on supervision, psychotherapy and coaching.’ “Supervision ist ein wissenschaftlich fundiertes, praxisorientiertes und ethisch gebundenes Konzept für personen- und organisationsbezogene Beratung in der Arbeitswelt.” (Jörg Fellermann - Annette Lentze - Manfred Leppers, Supervision, Ein Beitrag zur Qualifizierung beruflicher Arbeit, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Supervision e.V. (ed.), Köln, 2012, 8.) “In der Supervision werden Fragen, Problemfelder, Konflikte und Fallbeispiele aus dem beruflichen Alltag thematisiert.” Ibid., 8. 4 Cf. Carl Rogers, Client-Centered Therapy, Cambridge Massachusetts, The Riverside Press, 1951. Cf. Adrian Gaertner, Gruppensupervision. Theoriegeschichtliche und fallanalytische Untersuchungen, Tübingen, Edition Diskord, 1999. * 212 +
