Countertransference In The Therapeutic Relationship

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Countertransference is an important aspect of the therapeutic relationship. As understanding transference is vital to the patient, understanding countertransference is vital to the therapist. Countertransference provides the therapist with a means for understanding themselves, as well as the lens they view the patient through and why. As therapy continues with the patient the therapist is going to have emotions, thoughts, or views that are evoked by their particular patient and need to understand where those emotions are coming from. Freud (1910) explained countertransference being the “result of the patient’s influence on the unconscious feelings.” However, the issue with countertransference is not with the patient, but with the therapist. If the therapist is unable to pinpoint where the issues or thoughts, that are evoked are coming from, it is up to the therapist to seek their own self-reflection or therapy. Paula Heimann (1950) provided that a therapist’s fear of acknowledging countertransference is impactful to the client and often leads the therapist to repress their true feelings toward the patient. Countertransference is the means of the …show more content…
The therapist may be coming from a place where she has worked with this patient for about a year and she wants to protect him. However, the therapist needs to self-reflect and find out why she wants to give the patient advice about his relationship. Finding out why the patient is allowing people to take advantage of him, should be a part of the therapist’s personal goal for herself. The therapist should thin, if she were to provide advice to the patient, how would that information land on him? I do not believe that the therapist would be helping the patient, because she could be enticing dependence and decreasing the patient’s
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