Countertransference & How to Manage It.
Countertransference is a phenomenon that describes the therapist’s inappropriate affection or unconscious (mostly) or conscious feelings towards the client. It can be both positive and negative. The therapist can catch romantic feelings for their client as well as parental or any other kind of social relationships.
In countertransference, the source of the feelings can perhaps be evoked by the client. Just in case, for example, the characteristics, traits or resemblance to any experience or prior client or therapist’s other relationships can cause countertransference between the therapist and client. The therapist can have parental vibes for their client due to their resemblance in traits or looks to their kids. Or they can form a sibling relationship with their clients and similarly romantic too. It can be problematic (if unrecognized) as well as helpful (for the client to cooperate better). It is problematic when the therapist is surrounded by strong romantic or parental feelings or emotions for the client and thus, they want to be around the client and go an extra mile for them and being extra empathetic or being so irritated or envied from the client that they show visible expressions of being bored or irritated by the client which can make the client uncomfortable or less expressive, perhaps.
Positive countertransference is having positive feelings for the client that can make the therapist more interested in the client and their case. They would deliberately want to make their client more comfortable with them so they can enjoy their client’s company for long or being too emotional for them. Whereas negative countertransference can be problematic, as the therapist can feel (strong or mild) negative emotions for the client such as anger, irritability, bored and annoyed etc. this can create an empathy or communication gap between the client and the therapist. Such positive or negative countertransference, if strong, can often lead to unmanageable countertransference even after realizing and recognizing it.
The way to manage countertransference is to find the clues with the help of self-awareness if the therapist is actually affected by countertransference or there’s any transference receiving from the client. If the therapist thinks that countertransference is because of irrelevant association or resemblance then try to solve it by revising the client-therapist relationship and try to resolve the barriers asap by positive working on it like if the therapist is annoyed with his client because he looks like his old enemy or talks like his annoying neighbour than he or she has to realize the client is not that enemy or neighbour in real but a client with his genuine problem. Self-awareness is important here for recognizing it and the best way is to refer the client if the therapist feels he’s unable to hold or contain his emotions for the client (positive or negative).