Countertransference in Trauma Therapy
Résumé
Background: Trauma is perceived as a highly subjective experience
depending on personal resources and resilience. The therapeutic
relationship in trauma psychotherapy seems to be a special one due to
the powerful, emotional charged process of revealing and working with
memories of traumatic experiences. This qualitative study explored the
countertransference in trauma therapy by means of applying a special
protocol in interviewing therapists from various cultural backgrounds.
Methods: Seven trauma therapists were interviewed following a
specific in-depth protocol where the method of emergent scenarios
was applied. In this method, the therapist describes a client’s
traumatic event, thereby triggering various countertransference
responses, which are registered and analysed in clusters.
Results: Participants indicated the exceptional use of defence
mechanisms, such as minimisation of the clients’ traumatic stories
and the presence of reactions such as: affective disconnection,
absorption by the scene, use of metaphors, being invaded by the
scene, identification with specific feelings, blank-out, confusion
of feelings, dreaming and emergent scenario’s appearance.
The findings indicated that therapists, who have experienced
trauma in their life course and/or genealogy, showed stronger
countertransference emotions and reactions. Therapists who did not
experience trauma and who were still in the beginning of their career,
showed relatively low emotional and physical countertransference
responses. The therapists indicated the application of self-healing
and other coping strategies to deal with the countertransference
feelings and reactions.
Conclusions: The vivid descriptions of the participants gave
deep insights into and highlighted the specificity of the therapeutic
relationship in trauma therapy. This was presented in the stories
of the therapists, which reflected personal aspects of their life
experiences. Several participants mentioned silence surrounding
personal trauma posed major challenges in trauma therapy.
Moreover, the therapists indicated several measures to deal with
countertransference issues, such as supervision, specialization and
support.