Author: Ushna Nawaz
Counter-transference is defined as the therapist’s feelings or emotions towards the
client. The therapist starts to imagine himself in his client or may develop
feelings regarding the client. For example, a client came to a therapist and
discussed an issue that the therapist also encountered in his life. The
therapist may begin to consider the client himself. It is helpful in some ways
like the therapist would be able to understand the client’s situation. The
therapist would find it easy to be empathetic with the client. These scenarios
considered positive counter-transference, as they are helpful in some manners.
But counter-transference can also harm the therapist-client relationship and the
therapy. The therapist may start to ignore the actual feelings, situation, or
consequences of the client and initiate considering that the client also feels
the same way as he felt when he experienced the same scenario. The therapist
may start to induce his thoughts in the client’s mind. Counter-transference can
occur due to transference or maybe if the therapist perceives something similar
in the client.
Transference is the projection of feelings or emotions towards the therapist.
In this situation, the client begins to perceive the therapist as a significant
figure of his life such as the client’s mother, father, siblings, or any other
associates. Likewise, transference can also be an advantage or disadvantage for
the client-therapist relationship and the therapy. If the client considers the
therapist as someone to whom he had good feelings so it will be helpful for the
development of the relationship and progress of therapy and vice versa.
Both transference and
counter-transference must be examined properly throughout the session. They are
helpful to develop rapport and for the progress of therapy. But, it can also be
dangerous if the level of transference and counter-transference cross the
average boundaries.
To manage counter-transference, the
therapist must recognize it first. A therapist can identify counter-transference
by increasing his awareness. He must attend the patterns of transference from
the beginning. He must be integrated, have strong insight, and being aware of
his counter-transference. Instead of suppressing his emotions or
counter-transference, he should accept it and try to resolve it. To dissolve the
counter-transference, he first has to deal with his inner conflicts. Here,
self-reflection can help a therapist to recognize and comprehend his emotions.
If the therapist notices any chunk of counter-transference during a session he
can use techniques like mindfulness to minimize or remove counter-transference.
According to researches and pioneers, it is believed that beyond the
therapist’s own experience, the finest room to acknowledge and interpret
counter-transference is in supervision with colleagues or other therapists. The
therapist’s openness to receiving opinions and supervision from an experienced
clinician can help him in many ways and also prevent harm to the client.
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