Approaches to supervision of reflective practice (III): methods that encourage ‘decentring’ and multiple perspectives

In the course of my clinical work I was greeted in school by the five-year-old child I had arranged to see with the words, said with a sense of pride, ‘I’m not allowed in the playground because I just hit James.’ ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘How does that feel?’ ‘Sad and angry,’ he replied. He had every reason to feel sad and angry; it was a shame that James was the recipient of his feelings but I was impressed by his capability to recognise and report his emotions.