ABSTRACT

Traditionally transference describes a process where the client projects a quality, trait or whole person from their past onto the therapist, ‘reality’ is then seen as being distorted by the client. If the therapist then identifies with this projected material and responds from this identification, this is described as their counter-transference. In traditional psychoanalysis the analyst’s counter-transference was viewed negatively, or even something to be ashamed of (Sapriel, 1998).