­Kelly is supervising Monica, a counseling intern who has previously presented as very open to clinical supervision; the two have a strong working alliance. Monica has presented Kelly with an audio file of an adolescent male client who presents as very needy and dependent on Monica. In her write-up of the session, Monica writes of feeling frustrated with this client. In their supervision session, the following exchange takes place:

Kelly: I listened to the audio of this session and read your write-up. This seems like a very challenging client.

Monica: Yes, yes he is. I just don’t know what to do with him. I think I am usually pretty good at figuring out how to work with clients, but I just don’t know what to do with him. What do you think I need to do?

Kelly: I certainly agree that this client would present a challenge to…

Monica: But I want to know what you think I should do with him. How can I handle him differently? What would you do if he were your client?

In this moment, Kelly begins to wonder if Monica is responding to her similarly to how the client responded to Monica.