Julie’s Ideas Blog 61: Transference and Countertransference: Part 4

The final part of my blog about what I wrote in INTAND newsletter (Hay, 2003).

Organisations spend a lot of time and money on training and development activities that are designed to encourage employees to show initiative, or to prompt managers to empower their staff.  Transference and counter transference processes undermine these activities, yet they are rarely mentioned as part of the training.

There are several ways in which we can help people (including ourselves) to become aware of these processes so they can be eliminated:
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• analysis of ego states – we can use questionnaires, feedback from others, role-play or similar activities – anything that helps us recognise how much time we spend in Parent or Child ego states that are reflections of the past rather than being parent or child-like behaviours that we have chosen to use based on current reality
• analysis of transactions – we can analyse examples of real interactions to check for any refracted, crossed or ulterior transactions – any times when we suspect that what seems to be communicated on the surface does not match the underlying dynamics.
• analysis of stroking patterns – reviewing individual, group and organisational patterns of recognition will show whether these are healthy and positive, including constructive criticism as well as praise, personal interest as well as professional – or whether people are somehow generating negative strokes that reinforce not-OK beliefs and behaviours
• checking our reactions through our responses to questions such as:

o   Who does this person remind me of?
o   How does interacting with them leave me feeling?
o   Are there things I want to say to them that I’m keeping to myself?
o   Do I feel drawn to reacting to them in a particular way?
o   Do I wish I could behave differently towards them?
o   Does the way I’m reacting to them have any similarity to ways I’ve behaved in the past with other people?  Is that significant?
o   Do I keep repeating unsatisfactory interactions with this person?  Why might that be?
o   Do I think this person is being childish?  or bossy?  or helpless?  or argumentative: or any other annoying way of being?
o   Do I get an urge to tell them what to do?  or take care of them?  or argue with them?  or let them take care of me?  or any other inappropriate way of behaving towards them?

Using Transference

It may seem strange to suggest we could use transference but therapists do this routinely to enhance their work with clients.  For example, a client who thinks the therapist is a good parent will be more likely to act on the therapist’s advice; a client who thinks the therapist is ‘bad’ can be allowed to work through their issues without being punished by the therapist.

Other helping professionals, and managers, can also use the transference process in a positive way, provided they are aware of it.  This awareness is the key – once transference and/or countertransference are recognised, the professional uses this knowledge to plan more effective ways of interacting, as outlined in Table 3.
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Examples might be:

• a manager realises that a staff member is behaving as if the manager is a father-figure – so the manager can act as a role model to let the individual learn positive ways of behaving – such as showing them how to deal firmly and fairly with an unreasonable colleague.

• a manager realises that they are being regarded as a mother-figure – so can use a nurturing style to encourage the individual to be more confident about their own abilities – such as by expressing confidence in a nervous individual’s ability to make a good presentation

• a consultant realises that a client is making unrealistic assumptions about shared views – so explains they will now play devil’s advocate as a way of prompting the client to consider other views

• a professional spots the signs of a competitive transference by a colleague – and spends time clarifying the colleague’s ideas and options instead of falling into the (countertransference) trap of arguing with them.

Reference

Hay, Julie (2003) Transference INTAND Newsletter 11:1 1-8
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© 2019 Julie Hay​
 
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If you’re interested in learning more TA, Julie runs regular workshops and webinars –  we currently have an offer of a free place on one of our webinars. You can use these toward your CPD and as credit hours in pursuing professional TA qualification