Posted by fallsfall on November 26, 2003, at 17:42:04
In reply to Countertransference Question, posted by Speaker on November 25, 2003, at 20:52:12
My therapist admitted to a bit of countertransference this week.
I was terrified that he was going to abandon me in the future if I did some specific thing. So I told him about my fear - and he correctly interpreted that I wanted to be reassured that he wouldn't abandon me. But, he had a really hard time with that. He told me that he felt I was coercing him into saying something that he didn't want to say. He said that there were too many variables, so he couldn't generalize and say what he would do if a patient did that specific thing. He did end up giving me enough reassurance that I stopped being terrified.
Over the next week, though, I started feeling really badly about "coercing" him. I don't want him to say things he doesn't believe or things that aren't true. I don't want to force him to do anything. I don't want to make him feel badly (I think that people feel badly if they are coerced). So I got all upset thinking that he was mad at me because I coerced him.
2 sessions later ('cause I didn't understand it at the next session yet) I told him that I didn't mean to coerce him - that I was just telling him how I felt and what my needs were. I didn't want him to feel badly. He said that there was probably some countertransference there - that his professional self doesn't like to be told what to do, but his PERSONAL self REALLY doesn't like being told what to do. He decided that "coerced" was too strong a word, and he apologized for using it. So, basically, he let his personal feelings take over his professional judgement. That is countertransference.
I would say that your friend was terminated because the therapist couldn't remain objective and professional because of individual issues that the therapist had. It is definately the therapist's problem - your friend did nothing wrong.
poster:fallsfall
thread:283808
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031123/msgs/284213.html