This study aimed to understand the essence and the meaning of the negative experiences of the supervisees
in the supervision classes in an art therapy master’s program. To vividly display the essence of negative
experiences, the hermeneutic phenomenological methodology of van Manen was adopted and applied.
Interviews were conducted with 12 participants between November 2015 and November 2016. Based on the
interview data, eight main themes and 29 sub-themes were developed. The following conclusions were drawn
from the hermeneutic phenomenological reflection. First, as the supervisees had no preliminary understanding
of what supervision was, they had tended to have excessive expectations about the supervision classes, and
this led to disappointment. Second, the supervisees felt very uncomfortable and uneasy when disclosing
themselves in front of classmates, listening to the verbal feedbacks from supervisors, and working on the
response art in the supervision classes. Third, the supervisees realized they were in a dual relationship with
their professor-supervisor whom they could not replace, and the supervision was more of anacademic class in
which they had to be evaluated. Fourth, some supervisees realized that their negative experiences and feelings
from the program supervision classes became sublimated as time went by. Ultimately, these supervisees
witnessed their negative experiences gradually changed into a new understanding of themselves.