The use of the countertransference in psychotherapy supervision

Abstract

The countertransference, the therapist's emotional reaction to the patient at each point in time, should naturally and routinely be part of the data under discussion in the supervisory session. The countertransference is so important a part of the psychotherapeutic process that to ignore it is to risk missing an important part, perhaps even the core, of what is happening in the treatment. The countertransference can be utilized in supervision without risk of intruding into the student-therapist's private life, or of turning supervision into psychotherapy, if the supervisor maintains a mental set of readiness to seek the origins of the countertransference emotions in the therapist's interaction with the patient. That these countertransference emotions also have their connections with the therapist's own neurotic conflicts is acknowledged and in no way minimized, but this is left to one side as not germane to the goals of supervision. The supervisor should always hold in mind the question, "How can these emotional reactions of the therapist lead us to a deeper understanding of the patient, of the patient's current emotional situation, and of the therapeutic process?"