A Trainee’s Guide to Conceptualizing Countertransference in Marriage and Family Therapy Supervision

Abstract

Countertransference has special significance in the field of marriage and family therapy because there are more points of countertransference activation when working with couple and family relationships than with an individual. While the typical selfawareness portion of graduate studies is important, this article prepares trainees to understand why their openness to working with their countertransference in supervision is critical to their development as a therapist. Through the presentation of a unique model of countertransference interactions, a case example, an exploration of the important role of clinical supervision in effectively addressing countertransference, and examples of how to explore countertransference, this article supports the trainee in learning both how to address countertransference that may inhibit the family's progress and how to enhance clinical results by making effective use of countertransference.

“I Am the Law and Order Candidate”: A Content Analysis of Donald Trump’s Race-Baiting Dog Whistles in the 2016 Presidential Campaign

“…Indeed it is this underlying set of attitudes-whether they can be called "racist", "racial resentment", or otherwise-that is more likely to result in the atypical behavior seen at Trump rallies than principled conservatism (see Sidanius, Pratto, & Bobo, 1996). The use of transference and countertransference in psychotherapy is founded on the idea that strong, emotional reactions require therapeutic investigation because the initial reason given by the person having the reaction is not often reliable (Chance & Glickauf-Hughes, 1995;Ellis, 1962;Gehlert, Pinke, & Segal, 2014) and may be substituting for a less socially-acceptable explanation (Freud, 1961;Rösch, Stanton, & Schultheiss, 2013;Yalom, 2005). Several studies cited by Lawrence Bobo (2017: p. 95) outline the negative emotional reactions White Americans have exhibited when their attention has been drawn to the demographic trend toward a "majority-minority population".…”