HYPNOTERAPl - Dansk Selskab for Klinisk Hypnose

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therapist. Today, Denmark need not be afraid of Russia because it has all the NATO nations
on its side. In therapy, it is like the good parent who accompanies little Johnny into the dark
closet to confront the supposedly powerful monsters there. With "parental" support Johnny
can re-experience his fear of the monsters of the past and master them. The Veteran patient
can confront and master the horror of past combat in the "withness" of today's therapistpatient
alliance. The abused child state can confront the feared representation of the abuser of
the past in the "withness" of the present "therapist-mother" alli-ance. But that depends on the
willingness of the therapist to commit his/her wholepersonhood to the patient's therapeutic
battle.
And to initiate such a thorough reaction the therapist must be prepared to co-participate, to
co-experience it internally. Within such a transaction the patient does not feel weak and alone
when re-confronting traumatizing events - and one which promotes a successful outcome.
TRANSFERENCE AND RESONANCE (1)
Therapists are often afraid to use the full emotional resources of their own selves. We are
taught as students in graduate universities, medical schools and psychoanalytic institutes to be
objective, often passive, and not to let our "counter-transferences" interfere with the
treatment, any emotional reaction by the therapist being defined as a "counter-transference," -
which, since Freud (1958) has been termed "bad."
But not all therapist feelings are counter-transference, in which the patient is object to the
therapist's subject. Therapist feelings can also be "resonant", in which the therapist builds a
"self representation" out of the object perception of the patient, and temporarily identifies
with him (2). This mitiates a "counter-resonance" in the patient as he/she identifies with the
therapist, including the treater's understanding. And it is through such mutual resonance that
ego strength is baned and received.
The significant element is for the therapist, through resonance (Watkins, 1978) to coexperience
the emotional impact with the patient. This therapist-patient "withness" in
conducting abreactions is absolutely essential. Such "withness" adds the ego strength of the
therapist to that of the patient, making it possible for the patient to confront and immerse
himself into a re-experiencing of the horrors of the trauma. Had one simply sat back passively
and urged patients to experience this by themselves, many of hem would indeed have experienced
retraumatization, an overwhelming of their weak egos, and in some cases a defeat and
retreat into a temporary psychotic reaction.
Researchers are just beginning to discover the importance and "power" of the therapist in
determining the outcome of treatment. The Spring, 1998, issue of CIinical Psychology:
Science and Practice
The eliciting of transference reactions onto the
(Garfield, 1997; Beutler, 1997; Luborsky, McLellan, Diguer, Woody & Seligman, 1997 and
Lambert & Okushi, 1997) emphasizes this aspect, as does the newer attention being paid to
"the therapeutic alliance" (Frederick & McNeal, 1998; Safran, J.D. & Muran, J.C., 1998).
Psychotherapy is studied as a science, but practiced as an art, 1) Theoretical Note: Both
resonance and transference involve thera-pist emotions. However, transference is an
"againstness" in which the therapist and patient are each "object representations" to the
other. They sense (impact) each other from without. In resonance, the thera-pist "joins" the
"self-representation" of the patient (temporarily identifies) in a common "withness." The
therapist then co-feels, co-suf-fers and co-enjoys that which the patient is currently experiencing.
Resonance is not "counter-transference." If resonance were perfect (which it never is)
theoretically one could not make a thera-peutically destructive intervention, because one's
own self would be hurt.
Therapeutic self theory (Watkins, 1978) holds that the treating one should employ less than
half of his/her self in resonance, the greater half remains objective. This avoids a "folie-á-