Countertransference In Counseling

CountertransferenceI first learned about transference and countertransference by reading Sigmund Freud when I was in high school. I knew I wanted to study psychology and I was fascinated with psychoanalysis. “To understand countertransference, it helps to tackle transference first. Transference was a word coined by Sigmund Freud to label the way patients "transfer" feelings from important persons in their early lives, onto the psychoanalyst or therapist” CITATION Ste10 \l 1033 (M.D., 2010). Simplified, it means that the client makes assumptions about the therapist/counselor based on their own personal experiences and relationships from their past. I have found that the deeper the trauma or more meaningful an experience was for someone, the more likely that I represent or take on a “role” for the client. I believe it is important for us as counselors to be mindful of this dynamic because in the process “patients discover that some of their assumptions about others, and themselves, are unfounded or outmoded and do not serve them well” CITATION Ste10 \l 1033 (M.D., 2010). According to Freud, transference is universal, and therefore could occur in the therapist/counselor as well. Hence the term "countertransference". Freud believed that when this occurred, it could interfere with