When all else fails, there is always hope, or is there? Hope may sometimes be difficult for clinicians to hold onto when the negative transference is contributing towards their own affective needs. We are real people with real feelings therefore it is important to address our REAL feelings that are going on within the therapeutic relationship.
Address what is being said or felt non-verbally and how this is making you feel as a clinician. With the continuous negative transference, it is happening for a reason and empathizing with that fully and truly connecting with it is important. In a healthy way that benefits the client, identify their feelings towards you, do they have similar feelings towards another significant person in their life? It is coming from something within the client that is real, experienced, connected with, past trauma, bad object, displacement, avoidance, etc. You address what is being felt, what is being said, why it is being said, how to positively channel these feelings into the session, redirect onto the client letting them come up with the answers to their transference.
I would hold onto the hope because it drives the success and challenges me to reach a client’s full potential as a human being. EVERYONE has a potential and EVERYONE has strengths, it is positively identifying them and working with them in a productive way that can help a person recognize and live in their potential. Holding onto hope for our clients that may be so wrapped up in their lives they forgot about the four letter word H-O-P-E.
I would like to think I can maintain a sense of hope, even with the worst negative transference. I have worked with many populations, but maybe I will one day cross a population that I have difficulty with and hope may be intertwined with counter transference. For example, some say it is very difficult to work with pedophiles of children or serial killers. Being fully mindful of my feelings and what is triggering me, I should be able to identify and label the transference in our sessions. But even for the worst population, I want to try my best to hold onto HOPE and hold true to my beliefs of connecting with a human being.
Someone mentioned being beaten in class and not feeling the repercussions, so this makes it okay. That is the problem with those in our society not knowledgeable of the psychology of things. Everything we experience affects people differently psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, the bio- chemistry of our brain is different, etc. Having empathy for these experiences and building off the person’s potential as a human being i.e. this can be small steps towards positive movement, a larger goal. Not everything in therapy is just solved in a 3 months of session, a year, etc These are deep, ingrained issues/ feelings/ etc. that affect our lives now and maybe forever. So be mindful, hold onto hope, and find the person’s potential/strengths, and run with it.
Copyright: Priscilla C. Raj
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