Teaching Counselor Trainees to Identify and Manage Countertransference through a Counseling Analogue

Abstract

Graduate students in a counseling techniques class wrote a paper discussing their interpersonal reactions in an interview designed as a counseling analogue. In the paper, students described their positive and negative reactions to the interviewee, possible explanations for their reactions, how these reactions might positively and negatively affect their work if this were a counseling client, and how they would manage the countertransference if this were a counseling relationship. The majority of students found the exercise effective at enhancing their understanding of countertransference.