Quote:
Originally Posted by toomanycats
I don't think you HAVE to run. I do actually know a fair number of people with intense transference who are successfully working with and through it. The key is that the therapist is skilled and maintains solid, healthy boundaries.
If you haven't read the blog "BoundaryNinjaTales," I highly suggest you do so.
Here's one of my favorite posts of hers:
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Well I'm sure they exist, but this forum seems to surely gather a lot of people dealing with painful attachment issues with their T, painful transference and a painful and problematic aftermath. Some are dealing with this aftermath for many years - I was one of them, and two times in my life, that's a lot of years! I found the only way out of it was to cut off all contact. Even if it seemed like the most frightening thing to do at the time. (I literally thought it would kill me, whereas in fact the situation of transference was almost killing me, as well as the consequences of not having stepped out of these connections much sooner). As long as I stayed in contact with these persons I had these strong transference issues with, that feeling of not being worthy, not being good enough, humiliation, isolation, intense mental and physical attraction and pain stayed. Not in the least since these relationships with authoritarian figures have such a problematic power 'balance'. So they will attract you if they see it fit for gaining your trust/for therapy purposes/or for whatever reason. However: they will push you away without any hesitation and without the slightest feeling of regret as soon when they feel their professional life may be at stake.Meanwhile you suffer and suffer, and as an already vulnerable/isolated person that blow is (very) hard once they distance themselves, while you are experiencing full transference.
In theory it sounds fantastic to work through transferene, and I'm sure there may be very few therapists who can do this in a therapeutic way. But how to find them? And imho: the chances are bigger that you have found a T who can't work through it well. There are so so many stories out there of patients that were either abandoned when their T's got scared after they told about their transference, or T first answered these feelings of attachment and transference with a certain proximity, to later get scared and become more distant (triggering major responses and depressive episodes in the patient), or the patient stayed for years in massive pain. Well to hell with it: scientific research points out that there is reason of course that the period in which the period we are very much in love with someone is only temporarily - you would not be able to focus properly on living life anymore if this infatuation lasts forever. And being in love with someone is by far not as all-consuming and painful as experiencing full-blown transference, imho. Since after all it is a situation in which you as a patient know very little about the T and thus idealize him/her to great extents, romanticizing the situation and T, and are in addition often in a very vulnerable state already when you walk into the therapy room, not to mention the power balance.
I would never take the risk anymore: never.
I do know that when I had a healthier social life, less significant difficult problems in my personal life, and lots of things that I enjoyed doing that was the only time I was able to walk out of situations that were triggering my attachment-/transference issues. Imagine the things you would like to do most: being healthy, traveling the world, having lots of friends everywhere and a passionate relationship - whatever it would be. Do you still believe you'd be stuck in this massive pain about transference with your T? I doubt it.
I just read a Pubmed-article about transference issues and how it triggered suicidal episodes. Even the smallest sense of rejection the patient experienced could be a trigger. I'm not sure if others recognize it when they experience strong transference, but I do. How therapy could deal with that properly with so much at stake and with such potential consequences as a result of relatively minor (not obvious) ''mistakes'' in the treatment? I don't have a clue.
I would not want to gamble with my longterm health anymore and try this out anymore. Also: be aware of course your records will be written full with your reactions to the transference since the T has to ensure that he can defend himself if things turn sour somewhere down the line (and when there is such transference they very well might turn sour), and the T will write whatever he can defend himself with properly if needed (or: he emphasizes his own professional response to your transference), even if he may not be dealing with the transference too well or if he may even promote attachment. This may affect your search for a new T. if and when things turn sour. It
does happen.