Reply to at least two of your classmates. In your reply posts, you should compare and contrast your own viewpoints to your peer’s post.
Your response should include evidence-based research to support your statements using proper citations and APA format.
Please refer to the Grading Rubric for details on how this activity will be graded.
The described expectations meet the passing level of 80%. Students are directed to review the Discussion Grading Rubric for criteria which exceed expectations.
Re: Week 2 Discussion 1: Personal Triggers
by Yanisleidy Mondeja
What are some specific topic areas that have the potential to trigger countertransference for you?
It is anticipated that a therapist will have their unconscious feeling toward a patient in a psychotherapeutic environment. Issues that can trigger my countertransference can be defiant teenager or child (Danieli, 2016). An individual may want to take a protective role rather than a therapeutic role as a psychotherapist.
Also, a patient who has mannerisms or looked at my family member or friend either positively or negatively may trigger my countertransference. It is with concern that reactions from our unconscious tend to surface when we are placed in such scenarios.
How can you identify your triggers and potential reactions to manage your own countertransference as a therapist?
As a therapist, I follow the professional recommendations for medical practice, especially in mental health. I will have to learn how to pick up cues where countertransference may be occurring. When countertransference occurs and it is not favorable, I will have to discontinue it professionally (Pérez-Rojas et al., 2017). It is with concern that countertransference can be typically associated with problems in a relationship or boundaries breaking similar to transference. Countertransference can be positive, for instance, when resonating or idealizing feelings with a patient. As a person being aware of signs that countertransference is occurring will help to identify any triggers when they arise. Thus, according to Hayes et al., (2018), the following are signs that countertransference may occur:
Being late for sessions
Extending sessions longer than normal
Violating confidentiality, having a difficult time staying awake during sessions
The irritability or arguing during the sessions
Seeing an individual socially
Forgetting the session
Aggressive or sexual fantasies regarding the patient
Countertransference awareness in the medical profession is significant, which entails the set of thoughts and emotions that a psychiatrist brings to the therapeutic relationship from prior experience. It is with concern that this awareness assists in offering insight into the ethical dimensions of a patient’s care. Psychiatric mental providers have to be trained to listen carefully to their own responses minding a patient alongside how one responds to how a patient looks, the story the patients tell, and the emotions that a patient showcases (Hayes et al., 2018). Thus, as a therapist, I will have to practice healthy boundaries, recognize when countertransference happens, and be self-aware to continue therapeutic relationships. In addition, I will be learning more about countertransference and identifying my triggers.
In psychoanalytic theory, how are transference and countertransference defined?
Transference entails a phenomenon whereby individuals unconsciously transfer attitudes and feelings from an individual or scenario in the past onto another individual or scenario in the present. According to McCluskey & O’Toole (2019,) transference refers to patients’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings associated with previous vital relationships with caregivers and essential others and that are felt towards a therapist. It reflects the state of independent memories of prior consciousness in certain physiologic relationships. Moreover, therapeutic relationships tend to activate neural connections (Piedfort-Marin, 2018). Hence, transference is ubiquitous and can be reflected in how a patient feels, talks, and acts regarding a therapist.
Countertransference entails reflection of feelings that a therapist usually has towards a patient, and in some situations, it is similar to transference. Moreover, it involves relationships in the previous that are essential and full of inclusive thoughts, attitudes, and feelings regarding another individual. According to McCluskey & O’Toole (2019), there are two types of countertransference: complementary and concordant. Complementary is where identification occurs when a therapist is treated transferentially by a patient in a way that feelings seem to be true. Concordant is when a therapist takes on the experience of a patient’s personality to be his/hers.
References
Danieli, Y. (2016). A Group Intervention to Process and Examine Countertransference in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. When Professionals Weep, 199–208. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315716022-22
Hayes, J. A., Gelso, C. J., Goldberg, S., & Kivlighan, D. M. (2018). Countertransference management and effective psychotherapy: Meta-analytic findings. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 496–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000189
McCluskey, U., & O’Toole, M. (2019). Transference and countertransference from an attachment perspective. Transference and Countertransference from an Attachment Perspective, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429323911-1
Piedfort-Marin, O. (2018). Transference and Countertransference in EMDR Therapy. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 12(3), 158–172. https://doi.org/10.1891/1933-3196.12.3.158
Pérez-Rojas, A. E., Palma, B., Bhatia, A., Jackson, J., Norwood, E., Hayes, J. A., & Gelso, C. J. (2017). The development and initial validation of the Countertransference Management Scale. Psychotherapy, 54(3), 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000126
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