Transference involves experiences and relationships from the past affecting those in the present. For example, transfer of feelings towards one's parents onto one's partner or children, or repeating patterns of feelings and behavior with somebody new.
Empathy expands its power in creating an opening for effectiveness and success in fulfilling and satisfying human relationships. Let us define our terms. Transference is the carrying across of meaning from one context, model, or paradigm to another one.
Transference is often (though not always) the culprit when you feel triggered, emotionally hurt, or misunderstood in a therapy session. One tell-tale sign of transference is when your feelings or reactions seem bigger than they should be. You don't just feel frustrated, you feel enraged.
All well trained therapists are aware of transference and countertransference and should be comfortable bringing the dynamics up, when they sense that there is some form of transference happening.
During transference, a person is relating to a template rather than genuinely connecting to another person. To end a transference pattern, one can try to actively separate the person from the template by looking for differences.
Work with transference in the here-and-now of the therapy room includes sensitising clients to the importance of examining their reactions to the therapist, identifying the self-limiting components of these patterns, and developing an increasingly flexible, mature interaction with the therapist. That is the theory.
In supervision, it is important to put the patient's transference responses in context with the conceptualization of the case. Supervision helps the therapist realize that the patient's transference response is taking place and understand how the type of transference relates to the patient's previous experiences.
Mirroring transference.
A simple example of mirroring might occur when a parent shows a sense of delight with the child and conveys a sense of value and respect. A narcissistic patient may need the therapist to provide the mirroring he never received in order to build a missing structural part of the self.
It's as if a destructive force appears to intrude repeatedly into the relationship between therapist and client as the violence of the perpetrator is re-enacted by the client onto the therapist.
Countertransference, which occurs when a therapist transfers emotions to a person in therapy, is often a reaction to transference, a phenomenon in which the person in treatment redirects feelings for others onto the therapist.
Previously, Freud believed that the repetition of childhood impulses in the talking cure (transference) allowed the patient to discharge his or her repressed sexual feelings and, so, must bring a degree of pleasure even when disguised as hate or frustration.
Empathy is one of the leading social abilities to understand or feel the emotions of other people. Attachment is thought to be a critical influential factor of empathy, as revealed by attachment theory and experimental studies, while empathy is also believed to facilitate the quality of attachment.
Emotional empathy is the unconscious adoption of another's emotional state, while cognitive empathy allows us to understand other perspectives. Empathy can manifest as a combination of these components, but they don't all have to be present for one to be considered empathic.
Empathic responding is when the therapist reflects (consistently) to the client BOTH the feeling that the client is experiencing and the reason for that feeling (as expressed by the client).” Here are a few examples of empathic responding: “You feel anxious because you are giving a presentation at work.”
But there is also a distinct concept of projection—also associated with Freud and psychoanalysis—that means attributing one's own characteristics or feelings to another person. In transference, one's past feelings toward someone else are felt toward a different person in the present.
Transference in psychoanalytic theory is when you project feelings about someone else onto your therapist. A classic example of transference is when a client falls in love with their therapist. However, one might also transfer feelings of rage, anger, distrust, or dependence.
Transference is the redirected projection of past feelings onto someone new today who does not share them. Displacement is a self-defense mechanism where someone redirects their negative outbursts onto someone (usually a weaker target) because they are unable to do so for the true person causing them (Neubauer, 1994).
In Logotherapy, the therapist is open and shares her/his feelings, values and his/her own existence with the client. The emphasis is on here and now. Transference is actively discouraged.
To end a transference pattern, one can try to actively separate the person from the template by looking for differences. Transference reactions usually point to a deeper issue or unfinished business from the past.
According to Rogers (1977), three characteristics, or attributes, of thetherapist form the core part of the therapeutic relationship - congruence,unconditional positive regard (UPR) and accurate empathic understanding.
Some of the things psychologists look for are your posture, hands, eye contact, facial expressions, and the position of your arms and legs. Your posture says a lot about your comfort level.