Tag
countertransference
Articles tagged "countertransference".
9 articles
The Subjective Side of Objectivity: The Person Behind the Therapist
If you ask a surgeon why they became a doctor, you will probably hear a story about a grandmother having heart surgery, a brother fighting cancer, or a childhood spent in and out of hospital waiting rooms. No one asks the surgeon whether their grandmother’s bypass will make them feel shaky in the operating room. […]
Shoshana Twersky, PsyD
October 19, 2026
Dancing with Clients: When Helping Becomes Something Else
Internship Like many therapists I know, I began my internship in grade school. I grew up in a dysfunctional family. Dad was an alcoholic; Mom was depressed. While they were together, they fought. After they divorced, their illnesses intensified. My childhood was anxious and confusing, like swimming in water with a strong undertow, always at […]
Steve Hauptman, L.C.S.W.
October 5, 2026
Clinician Stigma Toward Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Implications for Assessment, Treatment, and Clinical Practice
Introduction Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2022), is characterized by patterns of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. However, this definition limits the full representation of the disorder, primarily omitting the essential component of vulnerability (Crisp & Gabbard, […]
Deanna Young, PsyD + 1 more
April 26, 2026
Identifying, Addressing, and Using Therapists’ Countertransference in the Time of Pandemics
During the past few months, the world has been experiencing unique challenges. We are all facing many environmental and social stressors (many of which are not new), which will impact us in various ways. We are not only experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are also experiencing the racism pandemic (Schullman, 2020). In the words […]
Beatriz Palma, Ph.D.
August 27, 2020
If You Give a Supervisor a Trainee
Supervision will be introduced to students in many graduate cohorts as an aspect of their training they will both enjoy and endure. Framing it this way inherently leads students to start to question what they want in a supervisor. Some will think of the worst and ponder what it would be like to have a […]
Hannah R. Saltzman, M.S. + 2 more
April 15, 2019
Safety in Clinical Supervision
Introduction Perceived safety in the supervisor-supervisee relationship can influence the level of supervisee self-disclosure (e.g., of mistakes, countertransference, or personal factors such as self-care; Gunn & Pistole, 2012), as well as supervisee outcomes (e.g., self-awareness and self-confidence in session with clients; Johnston & Milne, 2012; Wheeler & Richards, 2007). The development of safety in this […]
Marie-Pier Vandette, B.A. + 2 more
April 15, 2019
Navigating the Minefield of Politics in the Therapy Session
If, indeed, the personal is political and the political is personal, where does that leave psychotherapists—whose profession is intensely personal—when clients voice strong political views counter to ours or when their political stress resonates with our own sense of a rending of the civic and cultural fabric of the country? In the aftermath of one […]
Patricia T. Spangler, Ph.D. + 3 more
December 30, 2017
Clinicians’ Emotional Responses and Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual Adult Personality Disorders
Abstract The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between level of personality organization and type of personality disorder as assessed with the categories in the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM; PDM Task Force, 2006) and the emotional responses of treating clinicians. We asked 148 Italian clinicians to assess 1 of their adult patients […]
Francesco Gazzillo + 6 more
June 7, 2015
Musings from the Psychotherapy Office
Rick Hanson’s recent book, Hardwiring Happiness (2013), provides a wonderful resource for understanding human beings’ tendency to focus on the negative and ignore or minimize the positive. As therapists, we are often challenged to be cheerleaders for the latter – reminding clients of their accomplishments and successes, encouraging them to reframe how they are thinking, […]
Barbara L. Vivino, Ph.D. + 1 more
July 16, 2014