TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTERTRANSFERENCE
FRIEND OR FOE?
My aim in this short paper is to re-introduce guidance counsellors to some key ideas
on the complex notions of transference and countertransference, and to offer a few
thoughts about how such phenomena might appear and be worked with in the
practice of guidance and counselling with individual, as well as groups of students.
The proviso in reading this short paper is that the reader bear in mind that
adolescence is a particular time, which can be characterised by extreme emotions
related to the journey of trying to establish one’s own identity as distinct from one’s
parents and siblings. Therefore, what is written below needs to be read as a general
re-introduction rather than as an explicit exploration in relation to adolescence.
By their nature relationships between students and their teachers, and this is true of
guidance counsellors, are full of expectations. Salzberger-Wittenberg et al. (1983: 2532) outline a number of expectations which students will bring to bear on their
relationship with teachers, and therefore also with guidance counsellors.
The teacher as source of
knowledge and wisdom – SalzbergerWittneberg et al, firstly highlight that
the wish for an all-knowing teacher can
stem from the childhood feelings that
parents are possessors of all knowledge
and wisdom. Such a notion can lead to
a demand that the adult hand ‘it’ over,
‘it’ being a body of knowledge, an
‘answer’, a ‘skill’, a ‘cure’, or perfect
understanding (1993:25). According to
the authors, the resulting frustration can
give an insight into the plight of
adolescence who believe that their
parents are not giving them all the
information, or they are ‘deliberately
and meanly not handing over to them
their grown-up capacities because they
wish to exclude and deprive adolescents
and keep them relegated to a state of
ignorance and impotence (1983:26). Of
course, as the student comes to know
that indeed the parent (and the teacher)
does not know it all, they can be seen as
ignorant and indeed have little to offer
them at all. The challenge, of course, in
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dealing with such aspects of the
transference relationship is that the
student needs to discover that others
have limitation and that they cannot be
all knowing or all wise.
The teacher as provider and
comforter – Salzberger-Wittenberger et
al, (1983) go on to highlight that
teachers, like many other professionals,
can easily become objects of infantile
hopes. These hopes are based on
idealised versions of what a parent, and
in particular a mother, might do. They
are there to be on tap, to provide for all
needs and, of course, the child in this
phantasy has little to do to get these
needs met. This might translate in a
recognisable form when ‘pupils lapse
into
passivity,
handing
over
responsibility for their progress to the
teacher’ (1983:27). The authors go on
to highlight that failure on the part
of the teacher to ‘spoon-feed’ can
result in them being seen as unhelpful,
and making unreasonable demands.
Section 1
5.3.21
Some students who may take this to the
extreme, may make unlimited demands
on the guidance counsellors time, fail
to recognise a boundary and the needs of
other students. They may want
the guidance counsellor all for
themselves. This of course, can lead to
disappointment, to frustration and anger
when
students
realise
that
their expectations cannot be met. It
might be useful, for guidance counsellors
to bear in mind that these transference
expectations into good mother/bad
mother may be mediated by trying to
hold a sense of themselves as being the
good enough mother, a term coined by
Winnicottt.
The teacher as object of admiration
and envy - According to SalzbergerWittenberger et al (1983), teachers can
easily become the object of great
admiration and idealisation. They can be
seen by students as having it all which
can result in some students striving to be
like them. The challenge, of course, is
that the student would learn for himself
or herself not for the teacher. The other
side of idealisation is envy. An envious
student may indeed try and attack that
which is envied. The attacking student ‘is
usually unaware that his ridicule, snide
remarks, constant criticism or rubbishing
of the teachers’ work are prompted by
envy’ (1983: 29).
The teacher as judge - SalzbergerWittneberg et al., (1983) further suggest
that students are often highly sensitive to
the remarks of teachers. They may have
over-invested i the teacher with the
capacity to reward/destroy them.
Students may become obsessed with
thinking in terms of favourites, most liked,
disliked, they may feel a teacher is simply
trying to point out their shortcomings.
Students can experience great distress in
their relationship with the teacher as
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‘judge’, particularly if they also hold the
teacher as the ‘ideal’. Students can also
experience this degree of judgement
through rivalry with one another which
‘also prompts the idea of being assessed
on a sliding scale ranging from being top
to being bottom’ (1983: 30).
The teacher as authority figure –
Finally, Salzberger-Wittenberg et al.,
(1983) point out that students, whether
teachers like it or not, attribute
considerable power to them. This power
may be seen as power for good, or they
may be fearful that the authority may
abuse their power. Most students wish
for ‘a kindly but firm teacher, who has
enough belief in the good qualities of the
pupils to set high standards, yet is not so
stern as to intimidate them or show no
forbearance at their inevitable mistakes
and human failings’ (1983: 32).
And so it that all of these expectations are
infused with feelings of love and hate,
idealisation, envy, - with feelings that
have their root in infantile wishes and
desires, and therefore are at the heart of
the transference relationship between
student and guidance counsellor.
TRANSFERENCE
AND
GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR
THE
As with any psychological term, the term
transference has a particular origin in a
particular context. It was Freud who
first used the term transference in the
context of psychoanalysis. Initially as far
as Freud was concerned, transference
was a foe, something that got in the way
of the therapeutic relationship, but he
ended up regarding it, as it were, as a
friend,
something
that
when
therapeutically addressed was core to
improving the quality of life and
relationships of his patients.
Section 1
5.3.22
Freud understood transference as being
an unconscious activity, one of which
his patients were totally unaware, and
one that only became transparent as
they proceeded to engage with him or
relate to him through the prism of their
experiences (real and phantasy) with
previous significant adults, mainly
parents, teachers and others in
authority. Since then, transference has
become a phrase associated with all
therapeutic relationships and is actually
now recognised as being active in all
human relationships to a greater or
lesser degree. Benson offers a clear
definition of transference:
Transference can be simply defined
as
the
experiencing
and
manifestation
of
feelings,
behaviours, attitudes, fantasies and
defences by one person towards
another in the present which do not
fit that person but are repetitions or
reactions
and
behaviours
originating in relation to significant
persons in childhood (2001:336).
Some key characteristics of
transference
The first step in working with or
challenging transference is the
willingness to accept that it exists
(Rothschild, 1993: 4). While that
might seem obvious, it is actually very
important to remember that every
student who walks through the door
carries with them an image (SalzbergerWittenberger et al.,1983: 33) or mental
view of the world, which has been
drawn by their real life experiences and
their corresponding phantasies in
relation to key people in their past,
mainly their parents. For example, they
may have experienced mother as
depriving, not available, or as
smothering, they may have experienced
father as a bully, a push over, or as
braveheart and all of the in between.
Your students, as much as anyone else
cannot but bring these experiences in
with them, they are impossible to leave
at the door. You, therefore as guidance
counsellor, cannot avoid becoming an
object of transference.
BEING OPEN TO RECEIVING
THE TRANSFERENCE
It is common phenomena.
It will influence, unconsciously,
and sometimes consciously how
students relate to you as a guidance
counsellor and teacher.
It involves the transference of a
range of human emotions such as
love, goodness, anger, hate and rage.
It places the receiver, (therapists,
guidance counsellor and/or teacher)
in the position of accepting and/or
challenging
the
transference,
depending on the context of the
encounter.
Not all feelings experienced by a
student are transference feelings,
that is some may belong to the
here and now.
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ACCEPTING THAT IT EXISTS
In accepting your position in this regard,
it is also important to remember that
your student will experience their
feelings towards you as real feelings
related to core self (Rothschild, 1993:1).
They are not, in their view, outrageous;
they have in fact, logic, value and a
purpose (Rothschild 1993: 2). They are
there to protect and defend against
fearful feelings, for example of being
abandoned again, or feelings of being
invisible, or omnipotent. Your student
therefore can experience a range of
ambivalent feelings, liking you and not
liking you, mistrusting you and
depending on you, being over-compliant
and nice and doing what they are told.
Section 1
5.3.23
They might react to a look you give, the
way you sit, by the fact that you weren’t
there when they arrived. Further to this,
as you begin to form an on-going
relationship, the transference may get
even stronger, and you may find
yourself in a position you do not quite
understand or that can feel overbearing.
The challenge is not to act defensively
in the face of it, but rather to see it as a
window through which a student
reveals more clearly to you something
about who they are, how they
trust/distrust, how the attach/detach
and what internal map orients them in
their world. This is their world.
TRANSFERENCE AND
COUNSELLING
Your task may simply be to recognise,
as did Freud that working with
transference, may be some of the most
important work you do with students as
a guidance counsellor. It is the work of
helping your students to let go of the
idealised,
infantile
images
and
expectations they might hold, and to
help them to readjust their mental maps
or ways of relating to others, by gently
focussing on the here and now.
Ideally, the guidance counsellor might
work in a way that will help the student
to appreciate and understand their
behaviour in relation to the current
relationship, and how past relationships
might be impacting on it. This approach
requires a high degree of safety and
sensitivity. The safety can grow, and
comes from the student knowing that
you can bear them, that you can
withstand what they throw at you,
whether it is their anger, rage or positive
emotions; that you might be hero one
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day and enemy the next, and that in
spite of it all, you are able to contain
them. It is important to remember that
much of transference is unconscious on
their part, and there is a challenge not
to take it too personally.
Imagine a case where a student has been
coming to you for a number of sessions,
and as you get to know him/her more,
you see that maybe s/he has cast you in
the role of ‘providing mother’. S/he
wants you to be ‘supermom’, you are to
do the work, in fact s/he has grown
used to having ‘mother on tap’ and you
fear a growing dependency. You might
begin to recognise that indeed you are
being treated like his/her mother (or
his/her imaginary/phantasy mother).
S/he is all out to please you one day, and
is furious at you the next for not
providing for her/his every need. When
it is appropriate you might consider
making some gentle linkages for the
student.
Section 1
‘Maybe how you’re feeling towards
me right now is a little like how
you feel towards your mother, that
you think it’s up to her….. …..’
‘Is your reaction to my asking you
to take responsibility for filling out
your CAO form, something like
how you might react at home, if
your mother asks you…..?’
‘In trying to understand your
silence, I am wondering if there is a
link between what you said last
week, that nobody listens to you or
cares what you do…, but I want
you to know that and I did hear
you say that you wanted to do
…..and that you were anxious
about it…’
5.3.24
Such gentle interpretations might help
your student to recognise that in fact
s/he is unconsciously looking for
something in you, or treating you in a
way
that
is
not
necessarily
appropriate, nor belongs to you. Such
gentle interpretations may go some
way towards what Yalom (1975)
believed was (not withstanding that he
was referring to working with
transference in groups), ‘interpersonal
learning’ (Hopper; 2006:550). By
withstanding their transferences and
accepting their presence, being able to
bear them, and where appropriate to
gently challenge them, you are helping
your student to adapt their internal
and interpersonal maps.
COUNTERTRANSFERENCE
AND THE GUIDANCE
COUNSELLOR
One cannot really talk about
transference without paying some
attention to the phenomenon of
countertransference. While again it may
seem very simple in terms of definition,
in practice the phenomenon of
countertransference demands that we
take cognisance not only of what is going
on in the intra-psychic world of the
individual (student and guidance
counsellor) but also what is going on at
the interpersonal level between them. In
terms of definition, it can be defined as a
range of feelings or emotions being
experienced within the therapist,
guidance counsellor or teacher, which
have become activated within the
context of relationship with a student.
Such feelings in this way might be
perceived as being responsive to a
particular student or situation, but they
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(like transference) are often determined
by the guidance counsellor’s own history
and experience of relationships.
Some key Characteristics of
Countertransference
It manifests itself as a range of
emotions within the guidance
counsellor.
It can be related to the guidance
counsellors own part experience.
It needs to be given attention
within the context of supervision.
Like transference, countertransference
was initially seen as something which
blocked therapy and it is only in later
years that it came to be seen as part and
parcel of the encounter. Therefore rather
than struggle to disown one’s feelings,
guidance counsellors might benefit from
thinking about whether what is
happening might constitute subjective or
objective countertransference.
Within psychoanalysis, the term
subjective countertransference is seen to
connect with the personal background
of the therapist:
Section 1
We are failing to react to a patient
as most others would because of
some
bias
in
our
own
characterological
machinery,
owning to influences on us from
our
own
particular
past.
(Ackerson, 1949 quoted in
Ormont: 1991:434).
5.3.25
While on the other hand objective
countertransference refers to less
individually oriented reactions:
For instance, we respond to with
annoyance when a patient interrupts
the group and pays no attention to
what the other members say. We and
the members feel annoyed, as nearly
everyone would. (Ormont 1991:435)
Therefore, as Rothschild (1993)
suggests, it is crucial to remember that
many feelings you experience and pick
up from your students are mixing with
our own history. Therefore in terms of
practice, when you find yourself
reacting to a particular student, in a way
that confounds you, or when you realise
that you cannot get a particular student
out of your head, or you find yourself
wanting to help a particular student
more than you would usually, then it is
time to ask yourself a number of
questions, for example:
Am I the only one or one of the
few that reacts to this student in
this way?
Who might this student be
reminding me off?
What is it about this student that
is triggering such a reaction?
Does it remind me of any other
situation I’ve been in?
Such questions may help to identify
what might be happening between you
and your student. Self-reflection
therefore is an important first step. It
might also be useful to talk to a
colleague in the school or a fellow
guidance counsellor about your
reactions, as this may also offer you
some clues as to what might be
going on in yourself and therefore
between yourself and your student.
However, more importantly, the
countertransference you experience is
rich material for supervision. It is very
important that the feelings and
reactions that are being evoked in your
relationship to a particular student or
group of students are brought to
supervision. In this way your capacity
to work with countertransference can
be developed and as Benson states,
Like any powerful tool, countertransference is a difficult instrument to
master and effectively depends on the
worker’s ability to be empathic and
to be aware of and in contact with
his emotions without defending
too vigorously against whatever
unpleasantness might arise (2001:245).
Therefore the value of supervision is
that ultimately it can help you address
material
which
is
personally
challenging, thus helping to bring a
greater degree of clarity and integrity to
your relationship with your student.
Is the situation tapping into an old
conflict that maybe unresolved in
myself?
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Section 1
5.3.26
TRANSFERENCE AND
COUNTERTRANSFERENCE IN
GROUP SITUATIONS
Many guidance counsellors may work
with groups of students, which may vary
in size from small groups of 4 or 5
students to larger class groups of 20-30.
Therefore it is important to briefly
consider the issue of transference and
counter-transference in groups.
Groupwork is a complex activity, and
while groups in schools may be more task
oriented, what is going on in any one
group at any one time can evoke
transferences not only onto the guidance
counsellor, but also from student to
student. Benson (2001: 265-269) argues
that those who work with groups can
often misinterpret situations when they
fail to see what might be happening as
being transference in action. He therefore
suggests thinking about the way
individuals and the group as whole are
behaving and what stories are being told.
These, he suggests, will give an indication
of the transference preoccupations; are
they concerned with idealisation, with
dependency, with anger at the nonproviding parent, are they concerned
with sibling rivalry, trying to be the
favourite, trying to get attention through
good behaviour or bad etc. Benson
(2001:268) goes on to suggest, (though in
reference to adult groups), that group
leaders would ask themselves, who is
speaking now, adolescent or child? What
are they saying about their experience of
the group, other members or you? What
family scenario, sibling or parental
relationships is being re-enacted now?
Such reflective questions can help add to
an understanding of what is happening in
the group and also offers a further
glimpse of the internal world of your
students.
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In relation to countertransference in
groups, Benson (2001: 244) highlights
that it is important that the group leader
works in such a way as to receive the
messages that are being communicated
by the group, and to try at the same time
to think about what might be happening
in you and in your group. He offers a
number of reflective questions that can
be used within a group work setting,
some of which may be of benefit when
working with groups of students:
What is happening to me at this
moment?
What do I see going on in the
group?
Why can’t I think right now?
What are people feeling?
What am I feeling?
What happened in the group just
before this?
What does this member/the group
need right now?
What do I need now?
What is missing or being avoided?
How is the group using me?
Who am I for the group?
What does this remind me off?
What is the myth/story/film script
operating here?
Who is silent? Can they offer
anything? (2001: 248)
However, what may be most helpful, is
to remember that your students may be
unaware of what it is they are working
through, as they work with you. They
may also be unaware of what they
are evoking in you and in each other.
Section 1
5.3.27
Therefore, an important part of the
challenge
of
transference
and
countertransference in groups, is to
remain alert to your own practice and
where possible to give yourself the
opportunity to avoid what may have
become typical responses. As Benson
suggests:
By inhibiting your impulse to
intervene hurriedly you can create a
space in which to think about some
very unthinkable and unspeakable
things and prevent yourself
responding in a way which justifies
the member or the group behaving
in this manner. (2001:248-249).
On a final note, it is important to
recognise that the guidance counsellor
may experience countertransference in
group towards a particular individual
(that one is always late..), as well as to the
group as a whole (that group are
impossible..).
Benson J., (2001) Working More
Creatively With Groups, 2nd Edition,
London, Routledge Taylor & Francis
Group .
Hoppper, E. (2006) Theoretical and
Conceptual
Notes
Concerning
Transference and Counter-Transference
Processes in Groups and by Groups,
and the Social Unconscious: Part 1’ in
Journal of Group Analysis, Vol. 39(4),
2006, pp. 549-559
Ormont L., (1991) ‘The Use of the
Group in Resolving the Subjective
Countertransference’ in International
Journal of Group Psychotherapy, vol. 41
(4) 1991, pp. 433-447.
Rothschild, B. (1993) Transference
& Countertransference; A Common
Sense Perspective on line at
http://home.webuniverse.net/babette/tra
nsference.html
Salzberger-Wittenberg I., Henry G &
Osborne E., (1983) The Emotional
Experience of Learning and Teaching,
London, Routledge.
CONCLUSION
Therefore to conclude, there is no doubt
that the practice of guidance in schools
will induce a range of transference and
countertransference reactions between
guidance counsellors and students as
well as between students. I would
suggest that a significant part of the role
of the guidance counsellor is to remain
committed to the process of peer as well
as professional supervision. In this way
they can create a space to examine what
might be going on, thus, ensuring that
their capacity to recognise and work
with these phenomena can develop.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Supplement written by:
Karen O’ Shea
Karen O'Shea (M. Ed) qualified as a secondary
school teacher and guidance counsellor before
working in curriculum development and inservice training for over 10 years. She currently
works as an independent education consultant
and as part of her work supports tutors in the
delivery of the NCGE Programme for
Guidance Counsellors on Whole School
Guidance. Karen also holds an Advanced
Certificate in Group Analysis and is a member
of Irish Group Analytical Society.
Section 1
5.3.28