IJSP Number 8, 2026

International Journal of Supervision in Psychotherapy, Number 8, 2026 Page | 21 If we emphasize the second part of this definition we focus on the relational disruptions in the person’s life, their unrequited relational-needs, and how they have managed to stabilize and regulate themselves. These stories are revealed, often without awareness, through physical gestures, unaware enactments, snippets of memory, or metaphors [18]. Consequently, the transferences that occur in the process of psycho- therapy may be the client ’ s unaware attempt to reveal and heal. If we emphasize the first part of this definition, the “ universal psychological striving to organize experience”, then we are all in a form of transference all the time. We cannot escape our own way of organizing a lifetime of experiences. Transference is simply the idiosyncratic way we express ourselves. We transfer our unique predisposition into every situation. Is “ countertransference” transference? Yes, according to the definitions of transference that I am suggesting, we live within our own internal organization of life experiences: physically, affectively, cognitively, and behaviourally. In a simple definition we can say that countertransference is composed of the emotional, imaginative, and/or behavioural reactions of the psychotherapists that are stimulated by the client’s interpsychic and behavioural processes. These internal responses of the psychotherapist may be in attunement with what the client needs in order to heal from their emotional and relational wounds or they may reflect an emotional resonance with what the client is unconsciously conveying , such as the introjection of the thoughts, feelings, or personality traits of significant others. Heimann [6] defined countertransference as “ all the feelings which the analyst experiences towards his patient” (p. 81), whereas Winnicott distinguished between a personal reaction to the client and an objective response — what Racker called complementary and concordant countertransference. In Integrative Psychotherapy we use the terms “ reactive” and “ responsive” to describe the psychotherapist ’ s various forms of nonverbalized interaction with their client. The term reactive countertransference describes the psychotherapist ’ s affects and behaviours that are an expression of their own internal conflicts, often in reaction to their client. We are in a reactive countertransference w hen our transactions with our clients are unconsciously tinged with unresolved anger at someone in our own life; if we are inhibited by our own grief and fears; when we disavow our own emotional history; when we are constrained by remnants of loss or trauma; or, when we are confined to a specific theory. When there is a reactive countertransference the client-therapist dialogue becomes a manifestation of the psychotherapist ’ s own internal conflicts and unsatisfied relational- needs; the psychotherapist’s communication is no longer in the service of the client. This is what has been traditionally thought of as countertransference. We provide a Responsive Countertransference when we are in attunement with our client ’ s affect, rhythm, and developmental level of making meaning; when we are compassionate with their sadness; when we are angry at the person who abused them; when we are patient and sensitive to their needs; and, when we communicate with sensitivity, respect, and choice. In each of these circumstances we may be engaging in a responsive countertransference — attunement to what the client requires in a healing relationship [19]. Reactive countertransference is counter-therapeutic, whereas responsive counter- transference can promote the client ’ s healing and growth. Each psychotherapist has their own natural inclinations and demeanour — some tend to be quiet while others are more exuberant, some are sensitive to the client ’ s affect while other ’ s attend to how the client is reasoning. It is essential that we psychotherapists remain aware of our own relational-needs