What is Transference?

Transference is a concept in psychotherapy that is emphasized when a counselor is in school to pursue their career in Mental Health Counseling.

Understanding this concept is crucial for the therapist because the mission in counseling to guide another person through articulating their own thoughts, observing their own actions, and reaching their own conclusions. These conclusions the counselor guides them to are ones that are not clouded with resentment, but help the client accept the facts of events and move onward with greater emotional peace and resilience. This, in turn, stimulates positive self-esteem, confidence in their own critical thinking, and openness to facing challenges because they develop the belief, “I can handle this because I am resilient and dependable.”

Transference:

The client’s emotional reaction to the therapist; the client’s projections onto the therapist.

Countertransference:

The therapist’s emotional reaction to the client; the therapist’s projections onto the client.

Non-transference:

The interaction between therapist and client that is not influenced by transference.

It is the therapist’s responsibility to make sure they don’t participate in countertransference as well as detecting when a client is participating in transference, and guiding the client through the beliefs that fuel their transference.

The goal in working through this is to help the client observe their beliefs, based on their projections onto the therapist. This articulation of beliefs can be an emotional process because the client will have to go back to the event(s) that created the belief which influences their projections.

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Learn more about Transference in the Client-Therapist Relationship below: