Counter- Transference Essay

Frank expressing his feelings and emotions is the transference. “Countertransference is a situation in which a therapist, during the course of therapy, develops positive or negative feelings toward the patient” (alleydog.com). Countertransference is the way a professional react to information a client provides. It is based on the personal emotions of the counselor. Counselors may have either a negative or positive feeling against a client.

Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, prettification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with clients, he felt it was an obstacle to treatment success. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done. The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is, in large part, the therapist and client recognizing the transference relationship and exploring what the meaning of the relationship is. Because the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient's unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with figures from their childhoods. Countertransference is defined as redirection of a therapist's feelings toward a client, or more generally as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. A therapist's atonement to his own countertransference is nearly as critical as his understanding of the transference. Not only does this help the therapist regulate his or her own emotions in the therapeutic relationship, but it also gives the therapist valuable insight into

Psychodynamic therapy – geared to limted objectives than to restructuring personality. Therapist lesss likely to use couch, fewer sessions per week, frequent use of supportive interventions, more self disclosure by therapist, focus more on pressing practical concerns than on fantasy material.

Countertransference occurs when the therapist unconsciously begins fitting their relationship with a particular client into the psychodynamic structure of a previous relationship and then reacts to that transference (Mattinson, 1975 as cited in Agass, 2002). This is natural and something that occurs unconsciously, however to be an effective clinician, one must be aware of their countertransference and be able to use it to help the client heal. Part of countertransference is projective identification which is when the client insights in the clinician the same emotions and state of mind that they are trying to dispel within themselves (Agass, 2002). Feelings such as anxiety, frustration, insignificance, or uselessness, amongst others may be provoked within the clinician and can cause that client to “get to them” making it difficult to work with them (Agass,

10). According to Landreth (2012), “Play therapy… facilitates the development of a safe relationship for the child… to fully express and explore self (feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors) through play, the child’s natural medium of communication, for optimal growth and development”

The reason behind this is that the counsellor is attempting to represent themselves as a ‘blank screen’ on to which the client may project their deeply held speculations about their close relationships with others. By the counsellor being neutral and detached they can ensure that the feelings the client has towards them are not caused by anything that the counsellor has done but are a result of the client projecting an image of their Mother, Father or any other close family member who has impacted their live. This process is called transference and is a powerful aid in psychodynamic therapy as it allows the counsellor to observe the early childhood relationships of the client as these relationships are commonly reenacted within the one to one therapy. The aim is to assist the client to become aware of the projections by seeing them first in the relationship with the counsellor and then with the relationships with other people (McLeod,

Countertransference is when a therapist’s reaction to a client is intensified by the therapist’s own experience, so it is the way a therapist perceives and reacts to the past experiences of a client. Countertransference can show itself in many ways but being overprotective of a client is one way and can

Therapists' Attitudes in the Field. International Journal of Play Therapy. 20 (2): 51-65, DOI: 10.1037/z0023410.

Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic, and psychodynamic therapies have paved the psychotherapy world as we know it. In the undergraduate program I attended professors advised students to be aware of transference and countertransference, therefore, not allowing client’s to transfer their feelings or experiences onto the counselor. Although, in psychoanalysis the therapist uses these transferences as a tool in which the client and learn from. Corey (2017) states, “the transference situation is considered valuable because its manifestations provide clients with the opportunity to re-experience a variety of feelings that would otherwise be inaccessible” (p.75). Throughout this process I can see there can be great benefits for the client to explore

Child therapy differs greatly from adult therapy in a way where in adult therapy, a person is expected to talk about their feelings while the therapist sits there to listen and take notes. With child therapy, there is no way to do that without the child getting bored about sitting still and talking about their feelings. According to child therapist Douglas Green, child therapy should be done in the language of play. Children are more expressive about their feelings and they grow a lot more when they are playing games, with toys, engaging in activities, through drawing, and some other forms of art (Green, 2012). In other words, the child will recover and grow more from the divorce of their parents or the death of their dog or family issues in general if they link up with a therapist and be able to express themselves by engaging in any type of play, than talking about their feelings. By doing this, a therapist will get more feedback from the child instead of forcing them to just sit still and ask them questions. Play therapy, along with other methods specifically designed for child therapy, focuses on the child’s emotional well-being, it serves as a healthy way to express their concerns and feelings, and it helps improve their relationship with those around them especially their families.

The setting in which my personal theory of therapy will take place is within an education school setting. Current research has claimed that utilizing APT is helpful in decreasing concerning behaviour within elementary students (Kottman and Ashby, 2015). In developing my personalized therapeutic orientation, an IPT approach was established, focusing on both non-directive and directive play therapy to support the complex needs of clients (Gil, Konrath, Shaw, Goldin, & McTaggart Bryan, 2015). This is helpful to meet the needs of a varying population of clients with differing needs and abilities within a school setting. This is highlighted as helpful for this population by Gil, Konrath, Shaw, Goldin, & McTaggart Bryan (2015) indicating that child-centered

Transference and counter transference is one of most important aspects of treatment between patient and practitioner. In a clinical setting we do not always have the opportunity to have consecutive treatments with the same patient and as a result may not be able to acknowledge or notice these occurrences. It is not often that I have the opportunity to see a patient on a regular basis or even twice for that matter. As a result, it is not possible for me to notice or recognize any transference that the patient my have towards me. At times however, I clearly know the impose counter-transference & boundaries issues which patient and I experience.

There is great importance placed on the therapeutic relationship in both CCPT and Gestalt play therapy. The importance is that there is a need for true connection in order for a child to properly work on their inner self, growth, development or self-regulation. Virginia Axline made principles for CCPT therapists to go by in order to help assist therapist to create a good therapeutic relationship with their clients; after a time Gary Landreth revised and added more to make eight principles to be followed. A few of those principles are “1: The therapist is genuinely interested in the child and develops a warm, caring relationship. 2: The therapist experiences unqualified acceptance of the child and does not wish that the child were different in some way. And 3: The therapist creates a feeling of safety and permissiveness in the relationship so the child feels free to explore and express self completely” (OConnor & Braverman, 2009). When a CCPT therapist is nonjudgmental, kind, caring and permissive in their relationship with a child than that child is given more courage to look further into their real self. The relationship between therapist and child/client in CCPT is so important that if creating and sustaining the relationship is not done correctly the therapy may fail (OConnor & Braverman, 2009).

Ray, Bratton, Rhine, and Jones. (2001). The Effectiveness of Play Therapy: Resopnding to the Critics. International Journal of Play Therapy, 10(1), 85-108.

Article: Carroll, J. (2002). Play Therapy: the children’s views, Child and Family Social Work, 7, pg 177-187