countertransference
Clinician's redirected emotions
Countertransference is a therapist's emotional response to a patient, especially when shaped by the therapist's own unresolved feelings or past experiences.
Originally a psychoanalytic concept describing unconscious reactions that could interfere with treatment, it now encompasses any feelings a therapist develops toward a client: Her countertransference made it hard to maintain professional distance.
Recognizing countertransference is considered essential to ethical therapeutic practice.
Something that extends outward
- analystOne who examines systematically
- therapistMental health practitioner
- clientOne who hires professionals
- patientAble to wait calmly
boundaries · supervision · self-awareness · therapeutic relationship · blind spots · enactment · working through · interpretation
Unconscious blocking of thoughts
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- projectionSomething that extends outward
- denialRefusal to accept reality
- rationalizationInventing acceptable motives afterward
reaction formation · sublimation · dissociation · regression · suppression · intellectualization · acting out · splitting
Sharing another's emotions
- irritationMild anger or inflammation
- affectionWarm emotional attachment
- resentmentPersistent bitter displeasure
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
fondness · compassion · frustration · attraction · protectiveness · boredom · anger · sadness
projection
Something that extends outward
- analystOne who examines systematically
- therapistMental health practitioner
- clientOne who hires professionals
patient · boundaries · supervision · self-awareness · therapeutic relationship · blind spots · enactment · working through · interpretation · insight
repression
Unconscious blocking of thoughts
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- projectionSomething that extends outward
- denialRefusal to accept reality
rationalization · reaction formation · sublimation · dissociation · regression · suppression · intellectualization · acting out · splitting · idealization
empathy
Sharing another's emotions
- irritationMild anger or inflammation
- affectionWarm emotional attachment
- resentmentPersistent bitter displeasure
anxiety · fondness · compassion · frustration · attraction · protectiveness · boredom · anger · sadness · warmth
countertransferencetransference
Redirecting feelings to substitutes
transfer, transferred, transferring, transferable, transference, nontransferable, transferee, transferal, retransfer