Couples and Countertransference

Fresh, informative chapters discuss implications of countertransference in work with couples and address issues important to therapists'use of self in therapy. Couples and Countertransference helps therapists become more effective in their work as they learn to recognize countertransference and see how it affects their perceptions of self and clients and, thus, impacts the therapy process. Chapters range from authors'personal reflections to more grounded, theory-based thinking. A highlight of the book is the third in a series of transcripts from master therapist Virginia Satir. This transcript presents her exercise "With Whom Am I Having the Pleasure," a teaching tool which helps therapists become alert to countertransference and aids them in perceiving the true self of a client as opposed to their image of the client. In Couples and Countertransference, contributing authors discuss their own experiences with countertransference. Many of the authors take a subjective approach and are candid in reporting their own internal processes during therapy, providing firsthand experiences to help readers contending with similar issues. Among the topics authors explore are:

the value of a therapist becoming aware of his or her usual patterns of countertransference
countertransference as projective identification
gender bias and countertransference
countertransference in sexual therapyBeginning and advanced family and couples therapists, counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists, as well as students planning to enter such fields, will find this book helps them understand more thoroughly the dynamics of countertransference in therapy. Couples and Countertransference is also useful for any clinician interested in learning about or using the Satir Model.