ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to identify and clear certain obstacles that may prevent the chemically dependent from experiencing empathic mirroring or empathic attunement, or might bar them from being matched to the kind of comprehensive and intensive treatment interventions that they need in order to recover from addiction. This necessitates addressing the negative countertransference reactions of the helping professionals, debunking certain myths, and ensuring that the projection of low and negative expectations upon patients does not block them from receiving the kind of effective treatment they so desperately require.
