Narrative Therapy was first introduced in the early writings of Michael White and David Epston in the early 1990s. Narrative theory presents stories as the performance of identity, not as representative of identity. The uniqueness of Narrative Therapy in today’s society is that it emphasizes and brings in a different perspective about looking at and situating human beings in their environment. With a strong appreciation for social justice, Narrative Therapy does attend to inequities of gender, race, economics, sexual orientation, and more. The process of supervising and training a narrative therapist parallels the process in the therapist-client relationship. The utilization of definitional ceremonies in the therapeutic process also enhances the reflecting team’s effectiveness. Definitional ceremonies are typically provided to underserved populations whose personal narratives are affected by issues of diversity, privilege, power, and marginalization.

Supervisors must keep the conversation of social location and issues of power and privilege front and center in the process and content of supervision. This chapter presents some ways in which supervisors can keep these conversations central in supervision so that discussions of diversity and oppression remain vibrant, intentional, and ever-present. It outlines four primary areas that can be attended to in the supervisor-supervisee relationship in order to do this: establishing a safe space for supervisory connection; working toward cultural knowledge/awareness and cultural humility; recognizing and managing privilege, power, and bias associated with social location for all involved; and embracing our role as agents of change in the areas of social justice and advocacy with our clients and in our profession. The degree to which the supervisor creates a sense of safety for supervisees to self-disclose influences the quality of the supervisory relationship.