PATHWAY TO JOY AND HEALING

In the course of my emotional healing and counseling work, I have had the opportunity to learn some common psychological phenomenons. These are the concepts of resistance, transference, and counter-transference.  These issues are normally spotted and identified by the therapist or counselor who establishes clear and healthy boundaries with the client so that it does not become a problem.  These issues become a serious problem if neglected or acted upon by the practitioner and the client.

Resistance is based on personal automatic ways of reacting in which clients both reveal and keep hidden aspects of themselves from the therapist or another person. These behaviors occur mostly during therapy, in interaction with the therapist. It is a way of avoiding and yet expressing unacceptable drives, feelings,fantasies, and behavior patterns. Examples of causes of resistance include: resistance to the recognition of feelings, fantasies, and motives; resistance as a way of demonstrating self-sufficiency; or resistance as clients’ reluctance to change their behavior outside the therapy room. The failure to recognize resistance will keep the client or ourselves stuck and unable to move forward in our emotional healing process.

In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a patient’s feelings for a significant person to the therapist. One definition of transference is “the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person’s childhood.” Another definition is “the redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object.” Still another definition is “a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, especially of childhood, and the substitution of another person … for the original object of the repressed impulses.”

Transference is often manifested a sexual attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. Counter-transference is defined as redirection of a therapist’s or counselor’s feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist’s emotional entanglement with a client.

These dynamics between the therapist and the client are detrimental to the recovery and progress and can cause harm to the mental state of the client or ourselves. In psychological practice, it is strictly prohibited for the therapist or counselor to become emotionally or romantically involved with their clients.  This prohibited behavior can cause the practitioner to lose his/her medical license before a psychological licensing board, and continuing a relationship after discontinuing treatment also is considered unethical and strongly discouraged.

Awareness of these common psychological phenomenons can help with our own recovery and progress during our emotional healing process through psychological counseling. Sending healing light, Brooke (Copyright 2014 Kundalini Spirit with All Right Reserved)