Psychology Commons^™

The Therapist's Experience Of Feeling In Too Deep With A Client: A Phenomenological Exploration, Deborah Lynn Weisshaar

Psychology Dissertations

Research regarding the experience of the psychotherapist in the therapeutic interaction is uncommon in scientific literature and rarer still in the literature of the U.S. When Freud recognized the therapist’s emotional experience in response to the client, he termed it countertransference and identified it as counterproductive to the analytic process. Later it was recognized as containing potentially useful information about the client. Despite a shift in academic concern away from the clinician’s experience, outcome studies have demonstrated the importance of the therapeutic relationship. If the therapist’s experience can help or hinder the relationship and, therefore, the process of therapy, it …