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“Yes, Of Course It Hurts When Buds Are Breaking”: Therapist Reactions to an Adolescent Client's Sexual Material in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Author(s) -
NissenLie Helene A.,
Stänicke Erik
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22067
Subject(s) - psychology , psychotherapist , psychosexual development , psychodynamics , psychodynamic psychotherapy , individuation , psychoanalysis
This article focuses on the therapist's emotional reactions to a young female client's revelations about her fear of being raped that came up in the course of an open‐ended psychodynamic psychotherapy. The client suffered from depression and emotional disturbance related to the overwhelming developmental tasks of adolescence, including individuation and psychosexual development. The patient's fears and nightmares not only raised ethical dilemmas in the therapist regarding how to handle the implications of these revelations but also reactivated the therapist's own issues from her adolescent period. The fact that the material of the patient found a “hook” (Gabbard, [Gabbard, G. O., 1995]) in the therapist enabled a deeper understanding of the patient that helped resolve her inner conflicts and move on in her development.