The supervisory needs of neophyte psychotherapy trainees

This article focuses on the difficulties facing the neophyte trainee in the field of psychotherapy. Three areas of such difficulties are identified, defined, and discussed: feelings of inadequacy and incompetence, anxieties concerning supervisors, and confusion concerning multiple theoretical views of clinical work. Two vignettes from the early training of the paper's junior authors illustrate and discuss these problems and their resolution in applied contexts. A conclusion is offered which emphasizes the value of supervisory recognition of these dimensions of trainees' experience, as well as their potential for modeling processes of growth that are likely to help supervisees' patients as well. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.