Psychodynamic Counselling 

About: Psychodynamic Counselling is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Context (language use) & Psychoanalytic theory. It has an ISSN identifier of 1353-3339. Over the lifetime, 171 publications have been published receiving 902 citations.

Body talk: somatic countertransference

Abstract: This article focuses on a clinically observed event: the impact of the analytic session on the corporeality of the psychotherapist. The author sees this as an example of countertransference, in this instance ‘somatic countertransference’. Short and long clinical extracts are used to detail these events. The author touches on some early ideas on somatizing. The Kleinian concept of projective identification is itself explored and then used to explore further the idea of somatic countertransference.

Isabel Menzies Lyth revisited institutional defences in public health nursing in South Africa during the 1990s

Abstract: In this paper we revisit Isabel Menzies Lyth's work which sheds light on institutional defences in British hospital nurses during the 1960s. Today this work continues to inform dynamic organizational consultation in diverse areas, but to our knowledge it is not well known or applied by the nursing profession. We describe clinical examples of the work patterns of nurses in a tuberculosis-control programme in the Western Cape, South Africa, to illustrate examples of splitting, detachment and depersonalization. We discuss the tension between caring for the sick individual and containing an epidemic which threatens public health. We argue that Menzies Lyth's framework still serves as a useful tool for understanding the dynamics of relationships between health providers and patients, and that it is robust enough to provide useful insights in the South African public-health context.

Grasping the nettle: gay men's experiences in therapy

Abstract: Qualitative research was carried out into gay men's experiences of being in therapy. One of the findings was that, while the overall experience of being in therapy was usually perceived to be helpful, the experience of discussion of areas relating to the clients’ experience of their sexuality was not. A common reaction was that this aspect of their experience had been silenced or not adequately explored. This finding gives rise to a consideration of what 'gay-affirmative' counselling means – and in particular to the ideas of whether affirmative counselling can be implicit or must involve a more active stance on the part of the therapist. These differing approaches and the implications which arise are discussed.

Working with countertransference

Abstract: The transference-countertransference relationship is only one of five modalities of relationship that research has identified as potentially present in the therapeutic encounter. This paper gives the background and definition to one aspect of this - the countertransference - and traces the development of the concept from Freud's first use of the term in 1910 to the contemporary view that it is a useful tool of psychotherapy. The first part explains its connection with the Kleinian concept of projective identification and discusses its elaboration by the object relations school. There is general acceptance nowadays that the countertransference contains a great deal of information about the client's psychological world. It is therefore important to understand this process and the authors have identified three main dimensions to countertransference. These are its vector (or direction and force), its variance (the quality it represents), and its valence (its effect on the client). The second part of the artic...

Towards an interpersonal understanding of bodily experience

Abstract: This paper attempts to understand the interpersonal nature of bodily experience. It explores the way the body symptoms we meet in the consulting room, and in everyday life, express and communicate disturbances in our relationships with others. The article seeks to understand how others that are close to us can really get under our skins. The work of the philosopher of the body, MerleauPonty, findings from contemporary developmental psychology, recent psycho-biological studies and psychoanalytic insights are all drawn upon as a way of offering an introduction to contemporary developments in thinking and research on the body. The article explores the interdependence of body and environment. In particular, the body is always in an interpersonal context with others. Bodies are interdependent; communication is first and foremost bodily. Bodily behaviour and biological functions develop in the context of a relationship. The relationship with the other influences the formation of bodily processes and actions. Cl...