Working Through Countertransference Blocks in Cultural-Competence Training

Abstract

The encounter with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds may stir in the practitioners intense counter-transferencial reactions, which if unexplored may obstruct the helping relationships and interventions. This article presents and demonstrates a cultural competence training where such countertransference can be worked through. The training applies a combination of narrative analysis that emphasizes the active participation of the listener in the sense-making process and of the exploration of group processes from a psychoanalytically oriented point of view. Presented are four vignettes that demonstrate different types of countertransference and of the group process.

KEYWORDS:

• immigration
• cultural competence
• countertransference
• training