Date of Award
Summer 8-23-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology
Organizational Unit
Morgridge College of Education, Counseling Psychology
First Advisor
Ruth Chao
Second Advisor
Patton Garriott
Third Advisor
Simelis Assefa
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Countertransference, Bereavement therapy, Grief, Competence
Abstract
Countertransference is a common experience in therapy, happening among clinicians of all stages of their career and the outcomes of this experience hinge largely on how countertransference is managed. Challenging topics, such as grief, only make countertransference harder to manage effectively and the management of this experience improves with practice and time—something trainees have not yet ascertained. Given the pervasiveness of grief as a human experience, also indiscriminate in nature, the experiences of trainees experiencing countertransference are important to understand, including what is experienced, how they experience it, and how it impacts their process and self-perception of confidence and competence working with grief. Within this qualitative study, participants were interviewed regarding these experiences and were asked to speak to this phenomenon. From this study, participants clearly conveyed mixed experiences as to whether countertransference was helpful or harmful to their relationship with clients discussing grief and largely described many ways in which their trainee status impacted their internal reactions, process, and self-perception. Results indicated that trainees felt they were able to maintain their sense of competence but maintained reduced confidence, something that was already tenuous as a trainee. Future research would benefit to understand these experiences to better frame training to support students in their training to effectively manage countertransference in grief and other challenging subjects.
Copyright Date
8-2025
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Meghan Paynter
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
137 pgs
File Size
718 KB
Recommended Citation
Paynter, Meghan, "Trainee Countertransference and Competency in Bereavement Therapy: Strengths and Limitations of the Wounded Healers" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2649.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2649
Included in
Clinical Psychology Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Counseling Psychology Commons