Your patient with agoraphobia has gone on the bus alone for the first time. How do you feel?
A patient tells you that the therapy is not working and that he or she will not return. How do you feel?
When the patient walks through the door, they remind you of your partner. How do you feel?
Every day, therapists experience a wide variety of emotions, which is part of their job and the human condition. In recent years, Research is increasingly focusing on the emotions therapists experience during a session with a patient.. Furthermore, contemporary psychological currents place this aspect in a central position in therapeutic work.
The terms transference and countertransference are two concepts of psychoanalytic origin that, although they seem to be applied within this current, for many authors they exceed these limits. In this way, today they are present in clinical practice.
In general terms, Transfer can be defined as the transfer of feelings and emotions from the person to the recipient., whether it’s a friend, your partner, your parent or your therapist. These emotions are born from the history that the person has lived and that, by forming bonds with other people, feelings and affections are revived.
During a therapeutic session, The psychologist is not immune to the person’s transferences and reacts to them with other transferences.. This is what is known as countertransference. In this way, the therapist can feel affection, anger, frustration or sadness through what the person is transmitting.
In the therapeutic relationship, both the patient’s and the therapist’s feelings and emotions are in constant fluctuation. You could say that it is a kind of dance of emotions that are exchanged during the relationship.
Do not assume that an emotion is “positive” or “negative”
Studies that have focused attention on the therapist’s emotions have focused above all on the emotions known as negative: boredom, anger, anguish or sadness. **How does the therapist consider each emotion? **
It is common to identify joy as a positive emotion and anger as a negative emotion. However, one cannot classify what type of emotion it is without taking into account the therapeutic context.
In this sense, a patient who evokes feelings of sadness and distress in the therapist can be seen a priori as something negative. However, these emotions are appropriate if the patient is recounting an emotional and moving experience. Likewise, the anger that the therapist may feel at a given moment can be an opportunity to observe what that emotion is indicating and, consequently, perform a more precise intervention.
The professionalism of the psychologist
As has been seen, psychologists are still people and as such, they have feelings. Feeling is something that arises and is inevitable. This does not mean that therapists let themselves be carried away by emotions or that they mark the course of therapeutic work..
In this sense, the important thing is what psychologists do with these emotions, that is, how they react when they appear. Emotions and feelings can be very useful and, at the same time, alter the therapy and even harm it. It can be said that they are a double-edged sword.
In the profession, Psychologists are objective and impartial and the development of therapy will always take priority., meeting the patient’s objectives and interests. However, it may sometimes be difficult to draw this line that divides the professional from the person and allow oneself to be carried away by emotion, leaving aside the therapeutic work.
In this case, a good professional will choose to refer the patient, thus doing their job. These aspects are collected in the Psychologist’s Code of Ethics. For example, Article 11 states that the psychologist will not take advantage of his/her situation of power or superiority for personal gain or benefit. Likewise, Article 15 states that “when the psychologist is faced with conflicting personal or institutional interests, he will try to carry out his activity in terms of maximum impartiality.”
Finally, it should be noted that it is advisable to maintain a balance between the feelings that may arise in therapy and the professionalism of the psychologistwhich will set your goals for the progress of the therapy.
In PsychoAlmería We understand the importance of emotions, both of patients and of the professional psychologists who apply the therapies. For this reason, we carry out adequate monitoring of the therapies with regular meetings with professionals. We have an adequate protocol that guarantees that people who come to our center receive adapted and effective therapy in which the psychologist who treats them is objective and has adequate emotional regulation.
