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Ye Xu
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Email
yx24131@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
- Regression in psychoanalytic clinical practice
- Regression in psychoanalytic supervision
- Winnicottian approaches to regression in supervision
- Supervisory relationships and boundaries
- Holding and interpretation
Biography
I am a PhD researcher in Psychoanalytic Studies in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. My broader research interests centre on regression in psychoanalytic theory and practice, particularly its manifestations in clinical work and supervision. My doctoral research focuses specifically on regression in psychoanalytic supervision, examining how supervisors recognise, understand and respond to regressive processes, and how they negotiate the boundary between supervision and therapy. My research is informed particularly by Winnicotts work on regression to dependence, holding and the facilitating environment, alongside Kleinian and other psychoanalytic perspectives on dependency, projection, compliance and containment. Before beginning my doctoral research, I trained and practised as a psychological counsellor in China and subsequently developed a supervisory practice.
Qualifications
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MA Psychoanalytic Studies University of Essex (2025)
Research and professional activities
Thesis
Regression in Psychoanalytic Supervision
This doctoral research explores regression within psychoanalytic supervision, focusing on how regressive processes are recognised, understood and responded to by experienced psychoanalytic supervisors.
Supervisor: Professor Matt Ffytche , Dr Julie Walsh
Research interests
Regression in psychoanalytic clinical practice
My research interest focuses on the recognition and clinical evaluation of regression in psychoanalytic treatment. I am particularly interested in the conditions under which regression may facilitate therapeutic change and the circumstances in which it may become malignant, defensive or clinically destabilising.
Regression in psychoanalytic supervision
I am interested in how regression emerges and is recognised within psychoanalytic supervision, particularly through changes in supervisees’ dependency, compliance, projection, and capacity to think. My research explores how supervisors respond to these processes while maintaining the boundary between supervision and therapy.