The client’s ideas and fantasies of the supervisor in video recorded psychotherapy: Research findings from a qualitative study

Aim: Despite the current relatively widespread use of video as a supervisory tool, there are few empirical studies on how recordings influence the relationship between client and supervisor. This paper presents a qualitative, explorative study of clients’ experience of having their psychotherapy sessions video recorded and presented in clinical supervision.
Methods: 25 clients receiving brief psychodynamic outpatient treatment from trainee therapists at a university clinic setting filled out a open-ended questionnaire concerning their experience of being videotaped. The questionnaire focused on three related topics; a) the clients’ experience of the video recordings’ influence on therapy; b) the therapeutic relationship and c) fantasy relationship with supervisor. The answers were analyzed in accordance to Hill et al.’s (1997; 2005) guidelines for conducting Consensual Qualitative Research by two independent researchers and a third auditor. Furthermore, clients rated the overall influence of video recording and the influence across time on Likert scales.
Results: This paper only focus on the results concerning the clients’ fantasy relationship to the supervisor. In general the clients speculated a great deal about the supervisors’ attitudes towards the clients. The data reflected both inhibiting and facilitating factors concerning an imaginary meeting with the supervisor. Examples of client’s different representations of their supervisor will be given.
Discussion: The implications of the results will be discussed along with the validity, reliability and limitations of the study. Furthermore, the study’s contribution to clinical practice will be reflected upon.