ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a way of attempting to think about the experiences, to use them to understand the patients and clients better, and to engage in working with them in a manner that is thoughtful and humane. Careful monitoring of the countertransference experiences, often requiring support of a team or supervision, allows for the recognition of the complexity of these encounters. Use of the transference relationship through close monitoring of one’s countertransference experiences enables a deeper and more thorough exploration and understanding of the meaning of the traumatic event for that patient. Traumatised patients have been overwhelmed with primitive anxieties, which they defend against by using primitive defences of splitting, projection, and projective identification. In working with traumatised patients, aspects of the relationship that emerge in the room between patient and therapist are a reflection of the early experiences that have been taken by the mind to provide meaning for the traumatic event.
