Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Clinical Dilemmas And Countertransference Reactions For Therapists Of Pre-Operative Transexual Clients, Rachel Lynne Wichman

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

An exploratory study was undertaken to examine the clinical dilemmas that are inherent to working with a pre operative transsexual population, and associated countertransference reactions. Interviews were conducted with twelve therapists who had treated pre-operative transsexual clients. The interviews revealed that three clinical dilemmas were significantly referred to by the subjects as they described their countertransference reactions—diagnostic considerations, the therapists' clinical role in treatment of transsexual clients, and therapists' traditional sex role conditioning. The findings indicated that countertransference reactions for therapists working with pre-operative transsexual clients were an outgrowth of the clinical dilemmas found in treating this client population.