I imagine supervision in Comedy Therapy like the stage lights at a comedy show…

Here in Denver, I love the intimacy of Rise Comedy’s main blackbox theater. This is a place where improvisers build whole worlds out of nothing but trust and play. This is the theater I picture…

• The supervisor is the steady spotlight operator, not performing the scene, but making sure the space is illuminated, safe, and inviting enough for the trainee’s creativity and therapeutic intuition to flourish.

• Sometimes, the supervisor brightens the light to highlight a strength or insight that might otherwise go unseen.

• Other times, the supervisor dims the intensity, allowing more space for reflection and vulnerability… helping the trainee to co-regluate.

• Together, they share in the rhythm of risk and play…the supervisor ensuring the “stage” of supervision is a boundaried but forgiving space where the trainee can try, stumble, and discover new therapeutic moves, knowing they are supported and safe enough to really shine!

Rogers (1961) defined self-actualization as, “the curative force in psychotherapy – man’s tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities...to express and activate all the capacities of the organism” (p. 350). 

I strongly believe that each individual possesses the innate drive towards self-actualization.  In Comedy Therapy supervision, self-actualization emerges as strengthened self-and-other awareness and emotional attunement, improved confidence in your ability to provide the conditions for therapeutic growth, and expanded faith in your clinical intuition and judgment.