In the Belly of the Beast: Traumatic Countertransference

Abstract

The authors discuss their work together in a consultation process. One author led many groups that were created to facilitate recovery for persons directly impacted by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; the other acted as consultant to the therapist/leader. The leader was a resident of New York City at the time of the attacks; the consultant lived in a distant Midwestern city and the two had never met prior to the work. They describe their experience of working together and the role of this collaboration in the lives of the leader and the groups. Well aware that little exists in the literature about groups led by leaders having experienced the same trauma as group members, the authors pay special attention to the countertransference that each underwent and raise questions about the effects of that on the group process.

Group Cohesion and Coherency and a Threat of Loss in the Analytic Group

“…The other members isolate Marina and deprive her of information on the new situation. For the therapist, a feeling of helplessness prevails (Beck and Buchele, 2005;Bernstein and Klein 1995;Schneider, 2005). This feeling is accompanied by the therapist's associations related to the symbolic meaning of the numbers frequently encountered in this session.…”

Supervision Groups at a Time of Violent Social Conflict in Israel

“…The literature also relates to the effect of dramatic events on therapists and their services (Bar-On, 2001;Beck & Buchele, 2005;Hopper, 2003;Lawrence, Bain, & Gould, 1996;Ramon, 2004), as well as to the effect of the social context on small groups, including therapy groups (Biran, 1997;Hopper, 2003), support and psychoeducational groups (Nuttman-Shwartz, Karniel-Lauer, & Dassa-Shindler, 2004), and task groups (Neretin, 2002). In order to implement the social environment approach in small group interventions, Hopper (2003) developed a useful paradigm that includes ''here '' and ''there'' levels. This paper focuses on supervision groups of professionals at a time of violent social conflict.…”

Dreams of Deceased Children and Countertransference in the Group Psychotherapy of Bereaved Mothers: Clinical Illustration

“…However, there are a number of reports on countertransference feelings with groups of trauma victims (Beck & Buchele, 2005) and AIDS patients (Bernstein & Klein, 1995), and individual bereavement therapies (Volkan & Zintl, 1993), all of which could be similar to bereavement therapy groups.…”