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USING THE MICRO-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE OF CONVERSATION ANALYSIS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION IN SUPERVISION SUPERVISORS IN A CHALLENGING POSITION So nowadays, supervisors in Germany are finding themselves in a challenging position: Because of their different target groups, they are open to all kinds of problems and issues a supervisee might want to address; at the same time they are required to do supervision, not psychotherapy, nor train the supervisee; and while openness is a vital part of supervision, they cannot just let the conversation flow but need to crystallize a ‘supervisable’ problem (or help the supervisee crystallize it). Regarding the different process types, one-on-one supervision can be Regelsupervision (‘regular supervision’), meaning it is provided on a regular basis independently of an actual/current concern or issue, or another type can be a shorter process of three to eight or ten sessions that is called for in difficult workplace situations. This paper focuses on the latter sub-type: A supervisee asks for support in a challenging workplace situation. From the onset, the process is designed to comprise a specific number of sessions, which usually take place at the supervisor’s office. Generally, the process starts with a telephone conversation during which both interactants briefly speak about the supervisee’s concern, a suitable design for the prospective process, and the contract. One session usually lasts 60-90 minutes and is based on conversations, plus occasional visualizations or other methods. Ihe sessions are paid for either by the supervisee’s employer or the supervisee him-/herself. WHAT IS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS AND HOW CAN IT BE USEFUL IN INVESTIGATING SUPERVISION? Ihe use of language in one-on-one supervision has not been investigated thoroughly yet. This leaves a gap in how the supervision process works: How do we know which interventions are effective? Which conversational patterns can be found? For this purpose, the most applicable and most detail-oriented methodology is provided by conversation analysis (CA). Based on the German ‘spoken-language research” and on the CA developed in the U.S. in the early 1970s,’ today CA in Germany investigates transcribed audio recordings ° For a detailed account see Johannes Schwitalla, Gesprochene-Sprache-Forschung und ihre Entwicklung zu einer Gesprächsanalyse, in Klaus Brinker - Gerd Antos — Wolfgang Heinemann - Sven F. Sager (eds.), Text- und Gesprächslinguistik, Vol. 2, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 2001, 896-902. The most influential early work was Harvey Sacks — Emanuel A. Schegloff - Gail Jefferson, A simplest systematics for the organisation of turn-taking for conversation, Language, 50, 1974, e 213"
