Good grief and not‐so‐good grief: Countertransference in bereavement therapy

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between therapists' grief related to the death of a loved one and clients' perceptions of the process of bereavement therapy. Mail survey data were obtained from 69 client-therapist dyads. Results indicated that the extent to which therapists missed deceased loved ones was inversely related to client perceptions of therapist empathy, but not to client ratings of the alliance, session depth, or therapist credibility. Therapist acceptance of the death of a loved one was unrelated to any of the dependent measures. Results are discussed in terms of countertransference and its management.

Spanish Adaptation of the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S)

“…Empathy scales were used in an effort to establish the discriminant validity of the Spanish-language WAI-S-P and WAI-S-T; however, the significant correlations of these two measures with the EUS-P and EUS-T respectively, were probably produced for the following reasons: (1) the bond and the empathy contain common elements such as respect between patient and therapist and a mutual understanding between them (Horvath 1981), (2) a high level of agreement about goals and tasks (Table 2) required the clinicians to have a high level of empathy, and (3) this high level of consensus lead the patients to perceive their therapists as empathic professionals. In any case, these findings are similar to those found in previous studies that used the Englishlanguage WAI-S-P and EUS-P (Fuertes et al 2006(Fuertes et al , 2007Hayes et al 2007;Kim et al 2009). …”

Therapists’ Bereavement and Loss Experiences: A Literature Review

“…The interviewees reported that they found some comfort in the structure of their work (Givelber & Simon, 1981) however, they also mentioned that their emotional state was unstable and at times it would interfere with providing therapy. This relates to the previously mentioned findings of how unresolved losses and issues may have a negative impact in the therapeutic process (Hayes et al, 2007;Rosenberg & Hayes, 2002).…”

“…Therapists' defences such as denial, omnipotence, narcissistic withdrawal and reaction formation against weakness (Bram, 1995;Chernin, 1976;Counselman & Alonso, 1993;Dewald, 1994;Halpert, 1982) may cause great harm to the neutrality, objectivity, empathy and general engagement with the client (Counselman & Alonso, 1993;Halpert, 1982). A therapist's unresolved losses may affect negatively the therapeutic process as any other unresolved issues (Hayes et al, 2007). From the above, it becomes evident that if therapists acknowledge and "work through" their loss of health and own mortality, then their therapeutic practice can develop and improve.…”

“…Guy (1987), expressed his worries about many therapists returning to work while they still deal with their grief, however he also mentioned that grieving therapists might be more empathic with clients' emotional pain. In relation to the above, a survey by Hayes at al., (2007) which used 69 therapist-client dyads to extract data, showed that clients perceive their therapists as less empathic when they are still dealing with their loss and more empathic when they have resolved their grief. This research indicated that a therapist's unresolved losses may negatively affect the therapeutic process and pinpointed the importance of one being self-aware especially when the clients' difficulties are also loss related.…”

Healers on the fault lines: trauma as a risky opportunity for growth, mental flexibility and the penchant for healing others

“…These studies showed that the preoccupied attachment style, usually associated with early childhood aversive experience, is signifi cantly correlated with high self-reported levels of empathy among master's level counselors (Trusty et al, 2005). A recent study of bereavement therapy even found that unresolved grief in the therapists -but not their overall grief experience -was related to higher ratings of empathy by their patients (Hayes et al, 2007).…”