How can we prevent transference in therapy?

Countertransference

1. Giving longer sessions than is useful to the client.
2. Never challenging the client for fear of losing her love.
3. Avoiding confrontation out of her own fear of anger.
4. Unconsciously using the client’s dependency to feel powerful.
5. Fulfilling her needs for intimacy.

What is countertransference should it be avoided in psychotherapy?

If the therapist reacts to the individual as one would react to one’s own child, by becoming increasingly controlling, for example, without recognizing the countertransference, this could negatively impact the therapeutic relationship and perpetuate unhealthy patterns in the life of the person in treatment.

Do therapists encourage transference?

Therapists know this can happen. They actively try to monitor for it. Sometimes, as part of their therapy process, some therapists even actively encourage it.

What do cognitive therapists try to get their clients to change?

Cognitive therapists help their clients change dysfunctional thoughts in order to relieve distress. They help a client see how they misinterpret a situation (cognitive distortion).

When there’s nothing to say to your therapist?

Reasons you might have nothing to say in therapy It could mean a lot of things. Having nothing to say doesn’t mean that your problems have gone for good. Sometimes you’ve been working hard through some issues, and your brain needs a break. So it’s kind of like the feeling when a computer shuts down for a little while.

What’s the difference between transference and countertransference?

Transference is subconsciously associating a person in the present with a past relationship. For example, you meet a new client who reminds you of a former lover. Countertransference is responding to them with all the thoughts and feelings attached to that past relationship.

What did Freud say about transference?

Sigmund Freud held that transference plays a large role in male homosexuality. In The Ego and the Id, he claimed that eroticism between males can be an outcome of a “[psychically] non-economic” hostility, which is unconsciously subverted into love and sexual attraction.

What is it called when a client falls in love with their therapist?

There is actually a term in psychoanalytic literature that refers to a patient’s feelings about his or her therapist known as transference,1 which is when feelings for a former authority figure are “transferred” onto a therapist. Falling in love with your therapist may be more common than you realize.

What is transference in therapy?

Transference is the redirection of feelings about a specific person onto someone else (in therapy, this refers to a client’s projection of their feelings about someone else onto their therapist).

What is countertransference in therapeutic relationships?

Countertransference is a mirror image of this process, and occurs whenever the therapist unknowingly transfers their unresolved thoughts, feelings, and emotions onto a client. In the context of a therapeutic relationship, this can be highly problematic and may appear in the following attitudes and behaviors:

Is transference with my therapist and father normal?

Transference is completely normal. You are not ‘crazy’ for being attracted to your therapist or associating them with your father. The important thing is to bring these feelings to light and discuss them together.

When is it OK to leave a therapist and seek another?

If you think that your feelings are hindering your progress in therapy (ie when they are so strong you feel unable to be honest about them), it’s OK to leave and seek a different therapist.