The relationship between countertransference and the elaborative activity between sessions.

Countertransference (CT) research has demonstrated the importance of CT management (Hayes at al., 2018) for successful therapy outcomes, however clinicians’ ability to be aware of their reactions to CT is the precondition for managing CT and using it therapeutically with the specific patient. Therapists are often unaware of some aspects of their CT and they can become aware of them during the elaborative activity between sessions. In this study we investigated the relationship between CT experienced within sessions and some dimensions of elaborative activity between sessions. We detected CT dynamics in the first three counselling sessions of 23 patients for a total of 69 sessions. We measured CT from both external and internal sides: three external observers applied the Countertransference Behavior Measure (Mohr et al., 2005) on the session audios and the 23 therapists completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire (Betan et al., 2005; Tanzilli et al., 2015) at the end of the third counselling session. The therapists completed the Post Session Therapist Questionnaire (Rocco et al., 2019), an instruments assessing three relevant reflexivity activities in the post-session time: Positive regards, Comprehension and Diagnostic Effort. Results showed significant correlations between some dimensions of CT experienced in the session and some dimensions of the therapist’ post-session working through. These results highlighted the centrality of the reflexivity processes that the therapists put in place between sessions and not only within the session to increase awareness of their countertransference, a prerequisite for its handling during the session for therapeutic purposes.