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Transference and Countertransference

Transference and countertransference are common occurrences in counseling relationships that can influence the counseling process if not addressed. Transference involves clients projecting feelings from past relationships onto their counselor, while countertransference involves counselors' own unresolved issues affecting their reactions to clients. Both can create resistance if not worked through, but resolving them helps improve the relationship and clients' insight. It is important for counselors to monitor and work through any countertransference through supervision in order to provide the most effective counseling.

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478 views

Transference and Countertransference

Transference and countertransference are common occurrences in counseling relationships that can influence the counseling process if not addressed. Transference involves clients projecting feelings from past relationships onto their counselor, while countertransference involves counselors' own unresolved issues affecting their reactions to clients. Both can create resistance if not worked through, but resolving them helps improve the relationship and clients' insight. It is important for counselors to monitor and work through any countertransference through supervision in order to provide the most effective counseling.

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abcd
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TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTERTRANSFERENCE

Transference and countertransference occurs to some extent in almost all counseling


relationships. Counselor skills that promote development in counseling process are essential if
the counselor is to avoid over and over counseling on same ground. The counselor’s and client
ability to work effectively with each other is very much influenced by the relationship they
develop. Counseling can sometimes be intensely emotional. Sometimes counselor and the
client may be compatible and sometimes vice versa, thereby it is very important to understand
and work through it.
Transference
Transference is the client’s projection of past or present feelings, attitudes, or desires onto the
counselor (Brammer, Abrego, & Shostrom, 1993; Brammer & MacDonald, 2003). It can be used
in two ways-
1) Help counselors understand clients better.
2) Employ it as a way of resolving the client’s problems
Transference originated from psychoanalysis originally. It emphasized the transference of
earlier life emotions onto a counselor. In current times transference is not restricted to
psychoanalytic therapy, and it may be based on current as well as past experiences (Corey,
Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2015).
All counselors have as a transference pull, an image generated through the use of personality
and a particular theoretical approach as described by Gelso and Carter (1985). The counselor’s
way of sitting, talking, behaving along with his/her other current life conditions forms a image
on the client.
An example of such an occurrence is a client saying to a counselor, “You make me feel just like
my sister.” The statement itself is an indication but if the client starts behaving as counselor
were the client’s sister transference has occurred.
Five patterns of transference that occur according to Watkins, The client may perceive the
counselor as ideal, seer, nurturer, frustrator, or nonentity.
Transference can be either direct or indirect as according to Cavanagh and Levitov (2002).
Direct transference is where the client directly addresses the counselor by any relationship.
Indirect transference is difficult to recognize. It is usually revealed in client statements or
actions that are not obviously directly related to the counselor example, “You talk very
uninterestedly”.
Regardless of its degree of directness, transference is either negative or positive. Negative
transference is when the client accuses the counselor of neglecting or acting negatively toward
him or her. It must be worked through for the counseling relationship to get back to being
productive. Positive transference may not be readily acknowledged because it appears to
initially add something to the relationship (Watkins, 1983b). Indirect positive transference is
least harmful to work with.
According to Cavanagh and Levitov (2002) negative and positive transference are forms of
resistance. As long as there are transference issues, little progress is made in setting or
achieving goals. The counselor may work directly by confronting rather than analytically.
Corey and associates (2015) believe that the counselor–client relationship improves once the
client resolves conceived perceptions about the counselor. The improved relationship is
reflected in the client’s increased trust and confidence in the counselor. Also by resolving
transference, a client may gain insight into the past and become free to act differently.
Countertransference

Countertransference refers to the counselor’s projected emotional reaction to or behavior


toward the client (Fauth & Hayes, 2006; Hansen, Rossberg, & Cramer, 1994). This reaction
comes from the counselor’s own unresolved issues. Countertransference is often “harmful to,
threatening, challenging, and/or taxing” to the counselor’s coping resources (Fauth & Hayes,
2006, p. 431). Thus, managing countertransference successfully is related to better therapy
outcomes (Hayes, Gelso, &Hummel, 2011).
Example of countertransference is a counselor over identifying with her client who has
relationship issues. Such interaction can be damaging to the counseling relationship and can
destroy the counselor’s ability to be therapeutic and objective.
Kernberg (1975) takes two major approaches to the problem of conceptualizing
countertransference- classic approach sees countertransference negatively and views as the
direct or indirect unconscious reaction of the counselor to the client.
The total approach sees countertransference as more positive. In this countertransference is a
diagnostic tool for understanding aspects of the client’s unconscious motivations.
Blanck and Blanck (1979) describe a third approach. This approach sees countertransference as
both positive and negative. Watkins (1985) considers this third approach more realistic than the
first two. The manifestation of countertransference takes several forms (Corey et al., 2015). The
most prevalent are (a) feeling a constant desire to please the client, (b) identifying with the
problems of the client so much that one loses objectivity, (c) developing sexual or romantic
feelings toward the client, (d) giving advice compulsively, and (e) wanting to develop a social
relationship with the client. Watkins (1985) thinks that countertransference can be expressed in
a number of ways. He views four forms as particularly noteworthy: overprotective, benign,
rejecting, and hostile. The first two forms are examples of over identification, in which
counselors lose their ability to remain emotionally distant from the client. The latter two forms
are examples of dis-identification, in which counselors becomes emotionally removed from the
client. It is important to develop some consistent way of monitoring this self-understanding for
counselors, and one way is to undergo supervision .Counselors too has blind spots, hidden
areas, and aspects of their lives that are unknown to them. It is vital that counselors work
through negative or nonproductive countertransference for utmost success of the counseling
process.

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