The Therapist's openness in embarrassing situations. An interactive clinical discussion about what to say when to whom.

Wiersema, J.H. (Hans)

Submission type

Oral and Poster

Scheduled

Parallel Session III: Roland Holst kamer, 08-06-2018, 13:00 - 14:30

Kernwoorden

Embarrassment. Openness. Countertransference. Projective identification.

Onderzoeksgebied

Therapeutic relationship

Doelgroep

mensen met weinig ervaring met het onderwerp

Workshop

• How to react when a patient offers you a gift that you intensely dislike, or one which makes you feel obliged to do something in return? How to respond to a patient who tells you that she is in love with you and urgently wants to know how you feel about her? Or when a patient discovers that you always have to yawn within ten minutes after the start of the session? Or when your mind suddenly goes blank when you are supposed to react to what the patient said or did? These and other embarrassing situations both from my own and from participants' practice will be discussed in interaction with the audience after an introduction on counter-transference and the unconscious communicative function of projective identification. The focus will be on questions like: When is total openness beneficial for the patient? When is it harmful? When is the classical ‘analytic neutrality’ in the patient’s best interest? And what to do when you have reacted before you were able to mentalize about your countertransference feelings?