Countertransference in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents

Countertransference was believed at one time to consist of the subjective reactions of the therapist whose own unresolved conflicts had been reactivated by the patient’s transference. More recently, however, it has been recast to include the totality of the therapist’s attitudes, fantasies, and emotional reactions to the patient. While this important topic has received increased attention in the mental health literature in recent years, little attention has been paid to countertransference encountered in child and adolescent psychotherapy. This book focuses on countertransference in the psychotherapy of children and adolescents in detail. It offers the child and adolescent therapist an invaluable opportunity to explore countertransference in substantial depth and in a variety of clinical encounters across the wide spectrum of child and adolescent psychopathology. Perhaps most importantly, it normalizes the topic of transference in the psycho-therapy of children and adolescents and, in so doing, highlights the clinician’s subjective experience as central to the process of psychotherapy.