Ray is a clinical supervisor in a University Counseling Center. Part of his job is to supervise counseling interns. One intern, Melissa, is a 2nd-year student in a full-time master’s program. In their 3rd supervision session, the following exchange occurs:
Ray: Melissa, I listened to the audio from your session with John. I’m wondering how you thought the session went overall.
Melissa: Well, mostly I thought it was good. At the end of the session, he thanked me and said I had been very helpful.
Ray: Yeah, I heard that. It’s nice to get that type of affirmation from a client.
Melissa: Yes, it is.
Ray: I wonder if we can focus on the part of the session, about 20 minutes in to the session, where John starts to get emotional but then quickly shuts that emotion down and apologizes to you.
Melissa: Well, if you think that would be helpful, but he said the session was helpful to him, so that seems most important, don’t you think?
Ray: Sure, I absolutely think you helped him. In fact, I think overall this was a very productive session. I do want to focus in, though, on how you might have colluded with him in avoiding his emotional experiences, and how you might do this differently in the future.
Melissa: Well, I’m a cognitive therapist and I don’t really see the point of working with emotions.
