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Situational countertransference

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Abstract

Situational Countertransference refers to those responses on the part of the therapist that are generated primarily by severe, though temporary, distresses in the therapist's personal life. It has been this writer's experience that many patients are quite attuned to the inner turmoil of their therapist, and that they will react to it in a variety of ways, which will be described. Moreover, a comparison of the level of functioning of two similar therapy groups over the course of nine months found that the group which had inadvertently learned the source of their therapist's distress functioned significantly better than the group which ostensibly knew nothing about it.

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Schad-Somers, S.P. Situational countertransference. J Contemp Psychother 15, 156–171 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00946135

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00946135

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