Posted by wittgensteinz on March 9, 2009, at 9:31:54
In reply to Differences between male and female Ts, posted by antigua3 on March 8, 2009, at 10:53:32
I haven't had therapy with a female T so it would be hard to compare, but I have had this discussion with my male T. My priority was to see a male because I have greater trust issues with women, so on a personal level I would probably have experienced more negative-transference toward a female therapist, at least in the outset - as it was I felt considerable distrust to my current therapist so it could be have been unworkable with a female T. It was his opinion that in reality there isn't a great deal of difference between male and female analysts. In theory any kinds of transference can occur between male-male, male-female combinations regardless of the sexual orientation of the client. A heterosexual female client might experience erotic transference toward her female T just as she might toward a male T. Likewise, a male T can be the focus of a mother-transference. I think each client brings their own expectations to the therapy and some of those rest on the gender of the therapist. This will affect how we perceive the therapist but might also have an effect on how the therapist responds to us and in turn how they come across.
So it seems there are many factors at play: type of therapy, preconceptions of the client and of the therapist, projections of the client onto their therapist based on gender, manner in which the therapist reacts... and then the gender difference itself.
With this in mind, plus the fact that each therapist is different, I think it would be very difficult pinning down what exactly the gender of the therapist brings to the therapy.
Witti
poster:wittgensteinz
thread:884396
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090227/msgs/884573.html