Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the countertransference in work with individual clients. It focuses on countertransference in the wider context of supervision and teaching, group therapy and in organisations. The book explores working with an extreme state of disassociation in the transference–countertransference relationship. It presents the client's images, and explores their creation in his session with her as a form of 'enactment transference' which allows for the exploration of art-making as narrative. The book describes how therapists use their countertransference to alert them to the hidden dynamics in a group and attends to the split off feelings that play out in a group through projective processes. It highlights the importance of the consultant's awareness of her countertransference in work with organisations, drawing upon four case studies and 20 years' experience of work within organisations.