| This study explored and compared the supervision and psychotherapy experiences of two groups of trainees at different stages of training in Brief Relational Therapy (BRT), a treatment that emphasizes the reflective exploration of the therapeutic relationship. Four novice and eight advanced trainees participated in two semi-structured interviews: one focused on their individual and group supervision experiences and one focused on their experiences of treating a patient in the therapeutic modality they were learning. The transcribed interviews were qualitatively analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach. The essential role of reflective self-awareness---the capacity to attend to, accept and reflect on the fullness of one's subjective experience---in the development of relational skills was evident. The advanced trainees demonstrated both a greater capacity for reflective self-awareness and also a fundamental trust in their subjective experience as an essential guide in tracking the therapeutic process. In contrast, the novice trainees had difficulty treating their experience as real and relevant data and to trust that sustained reflective engagement with their own internal responses could facilitate the therapeutic work. The development of this capacity for sustained reflective self-awareness was shown to be a complex and relationally mediated process in which experiences of mutuality and the meeting of minds were important features. Demonstrating a more coherent, integrated and experience based understanding of BRT principles than the novice trainees, the advanced trainees also revealed a more relaxed, responsive, and flexible approach to their work. Although the advanced trainees had not become BRT experts, their ability to reflect on, question, and "converse" with various aspects of the therapeutic process suggested that they had internalized much of its sensibility. |
