| Countertransference,
as described in the Dictionary of Psychology, is
the analyst's transference on to his/her patient,
often used more widely to describe the analyst's
feelings toward the patient (Statt, 1981). In the
practice of therapy, that is, psychotherapy that
is non-analytical, the therapist's own personality
is one of the most significant factors in treatment.
The therapist's attempt to reach the patient on
an humanistic level is equal to any technical skills
and knowledge. The life experiences, attitudes and
genuineness that the therapist brings into the relationship
are critical factors in establishing trust. As Humphrey
and colleagues (1983) suggest, "above all,
therapists need to be skilled and sensitive. Mere
knowledge of theories is of limited practical value
if the therapists are not able to use themselves
as persons constructively in sessions with individuals
and couples."
Many paradigms are offered for
sufferers of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. These
methodologies are efficacious to some, while others
continue to feel their terror in an isolated world
of fear and aloneness. The sufferer remains for
the most part an outsider who is convinced that
he/she cannot be fully understood for the pain they
are enduring. My own experience with sufferers of
PTSD is that the constant that seems to control
their inability to extricate the affect of the memory
is this feeling of aloneness. Indeed, for the most
part, they were alone. The child, molested
by the father who looked to mother for help - but
for security, financial, and/or social implications
was denied even recognition of the problem - was
alone. She continues to believe that she is unique
in her subjective world - different, bad, deserving
of what happened to her, a traitor for "telling,"
and emotionally guarded (for it could happen again).
Those of us who have not suffered such trauma, cannot
begin to truly understand this feeling of solitary
detachment. We can empathize, treat from a distance,
and even allow our emotional selves to express our
sympathy. But are we really aware? Are we really
there - with our patient? It is this awareness
that I am presenting under the guise of countertransference.
In treatment, as in love, there
cannot be effective emotional connectedness without
understanding. I am suggesting that we attempt to
enter this world with our patient. Not solely from
an impassive theoretical arena, but to actually
walk, feel, see, smell, taste the trauma.
"Hold my hand, I want to
go there with you. I am afraid, and I don't like
where we may be headed, but I need to be there.
Maybe then, I can truly understand what now I
can only glance. Maybe then, together, we can
touch this thing and take it out of the shadows."
I have found that this statement
and action, have provided two significant
areas of straightforward resolution in the therapeutic
dynamic. First, the humanistic availability of myself
to my patient allows them to afford a vulnerability
that otherwise they contain. Secondly, my "wanting"
to go there, to experience with all senses, instills
a certain normalcy to their perceived uniqueness.
Engaging in the full process of experience by allowing
ourselves to encounter the trauma and relay to our
patient our own upset about "being there,"
provides us with more than a glimpse of the distress.
Perhaps giving ourselves a more acute sense of affectivity
will open us to more creative, objective and effective
ways of settling traumatic memory.
References
Humphrey, F.G. (1983). Ethical
and professional issues in psychotherapy.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Statt, D. (1981). Dictionary
of Psychology. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
©1998 by The American Academy
of Experts in Traumatic Stress, Inc. |
