ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges of sustaining clarity while riding a bucking bronco in the therapy room. How can the therapist maintain his seat through the extreme fluctuations of the patient? The overriding assumption should be that patients have a potential real self that can have a voice and be realized. The limitations of patients are discussed. The author explains what she terms coloring outside the lines of the therapist’s role—how therapists violate necessary therapeutic boundaries and why. She delineates problematic interfaces and discriminates appropriate versus inappropriate feelings toward the patient. Yet therapists are human; rigidity is not necessary in order to safeguard boundaries. Specific examples of how therapists may cross essential boundaries are given. Appropriate feelings toward the patient are described. Counter-transference reactions—fear, anger, inadequacy, envy, boredom—are defined with examples and consequences for treatment progress. The challenge of objectivity is discussed as are obstacles to neutrality and the impact of the unconscious within the dyad. The intersubjective and interpersonal schools are referenced. Suggestions on how to maintain neutrality are given. Responding out of the therapist’s humanness and heart-felt integrity will ensure actions that are in good faith.
