Well, transference in the way you're talking about it here is basically a crush. Training would be based on making the client not feel rejected for having natural feelings. It would also be an important part of the therapy. Some approaches see a crush as an expression of the client's unmet needs and ideally therapy would be a safe enough place to talk about that.
I think as individuals therapists might have a different approach to crushes, some might refuse to talk about it because they see it as extraneous to the therapy, others might see any attempt to sexualize the relationship on the patients' part as something to explore over and over again, in an attempt to salvage the work.
The focus would basically never be on encouraging a patient to have a crush on their therapist. But also does transference need to be like, wiped out? I mean we don't go around suing people for being too loveable that we fall in love with them.
I think (and maybe I'm wrong) the real issue here is a therapist who prompts a client to feel abandoned. That might not be a punishable offense in court, but you certainly have the right to own these feelings. A new T can help with that a lot.
|