Summaries

Ayse Dogan and Nele Stinckens

Operating in a mine field of emotions: A therapy processstudied from the interactional viewpoint.

c In this article we analyze the therapy course of a client with a bor-derline personality disorder. We mainly focus on problems in herrelational functioning, which also appear recurrently in the thera-peutic contact. Continued exploring and working through thesedifficulties with an authentic and reliable therapist, has a de-mi-ning effect: client’s frustrated relational needs are recognized andsatisfied and she succeeds in developing a more adaptive interac-tion style. By means of the Leuven Systematic Case-study Protocol(LSCP) the therapy course is systematically screened and, if neces-sary, redirected. Although such an approach is time-intensive anddemands an extra mental effort of both parties, the therapeuticprofit is large: it helps both the client and the therapist to enter themine field with relative peace, security and predictability.

Floor Boekholt, Saskia van Broeckhuysen-Kloth and GijsBloemsaat

Knowledge of objective countertransference improvesworking alliance

c This study examines the impact of the therapists’ awareness oftheir own ‘objective’ countertransference reactions on the clients’satisfaction with treatment (i.e. the working alliance). ‘Objective’countertransference refers to covert psychological reactions of the-rapists that are evoked by clients’ maladaptive interpersonal styles.‘Objective countertransference’ was measured with the ImpactMessage Inventory Circumplex (IMI-C); ‘Clients’ satisfaction’ wasmeasured with the Session Rating Scale (SRS). In a randomizedcontrolled design, therapists in the experimental group filled outthe IMI-C, receiving graphical feedback about their IMI-C scores, incontrast to therapists in the control condition. All clients rated theworking alliance after each treatment session. Clients of therapistsin the experimental condition rated treatment sessions more posi-tively than clients of therapists in the control condition.