W2 Personal Triggers

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PERSONAL TRIGGERS 2

My Post: Personal Triggers

The relationship between the patient and their provider involves significant engagement, communication, and feelings (My Wellbeing, 2019). During such communication, emotions tend to be high especially because the most inner details of the patient’s life are shared. As the therapist pursues further inquiry, a point is reached when the feelings and emotions of the client overwhelm them due to unresolved past issues. The overrunning emotions and feelings by the client are directed or projected to the therapist. This aspect of projected emotions by the client to the provider is referred to as transference (Parth et al., 2017). Countertransference on the other hand occurs when the provider projects their feelings or emotions to the client. Usually, this occurs when the information provided by the client triggers memories and triggers an aspect of judgment such that the provider associates the client with a past occurrence. Countertransference and transference occur unconsciously and for the former, it depicts the inability of the provider to maintain a professional relationship with their client (Stefana, 2017).

In my case, countertransference may manifest because of homophobic or racist comments from the client. In the recent past, the media has been awash with nasty stories of racism and homophobia some that have cost the lives of individuals. When beliefs based on social constructs overwhelm an individual’s thoughts and position on human dignity, I find it difficult to control my emotions and feelings (My Wellbeing, 2019). The events of the recent past especially where life has been lost or there has occurred injuries and destruction of the property only serve to signal how underlying stereotypes influenced by social constructs of race and sexual identity can be destructive. Having recognized racism and homophobia as my triggers, the best strategy I use to identify potential cases of a trigger is the choice of words by the client when they introduce themselves. If their initial conversation has undertones of racism or homophobia within the wordings and phrases, the first step is to cut the conversation and inform the client that I have professional boundaries that must be adhered to. The next step is to inform the client that failure to adhere to professional communication will automatically lead to the halting of the current clinical visit and any future engagements. The second strategy in identifying countertransference is when initial contact with the patient in the room elicits fear and anxiety in me thus affecting my judgment and decision-making. In such cases, I resort to informing the client of my intention and preference to integrate a third person into the care team to enhance professionalism (My Wellbeing, 2019).

In psychoanalytic theory, how are transference and countertransference defined?

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, transference is the confrontation resulting from the unconscious interpretation of internalized issues of the past thus affecting professional relations with the provider. Transference occurs in the early stages of the relationship with the provider/therapist and distorts the relationship due to fantasized and exaggerated events of the past the patient projects to the present situation. Freud’s theory describes countertransference as reactivated transference of the provider/therapist (Parth et al., 2017). The theory describes that countertransference is associated with the unresolved problems of the therapist but these problems are reactivated or triggered by the dominating transference from the client. The theory emphasizes that countertransference is depicted when the therapist identifies that there are behaviors that the patient must seek to repress or dissociate with because they are intolerable to the patient. Freud’s theory associated countertransference with the wrongful interpretation of feelings and emotions by the therapist by imposing personal rather than professional beliefs into a patient’s narrative while associating the narratives with personal events of the past (Stefana, 2017).

References

My Wellbeing. (2019, November 11). Transference and Countertransference — MyWellbeing. https://mywellbeing.com/for-therapists/transference-and-countertransference

Parth, K., Datz, F., Seidman, C., & Löffler-Stastka, H. (2017). Transference and countertransference: A review. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 81(2), 167-211.

Stefana, A. (2017). History of countertransference: From freud to the British object relations school. Taylor & Francis.