Skip to Main Content
66
Views
2
CrossRef citations
Altmetric

Articles

All the World’s a Stage

Games, Enactment, and Countertransference

Pages 104-116
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
Translator disclaimer

This article focuses on how games unfold as transferential dramas in the consulting room theater. The author explores how the therapist’s countertransference can become an avenue for understanding the client’s unspoken communication. Eric Berne’s idea that games can be played in three degrees of intensity is suggested as a framework for thinking about and using countertransference. The author proposes that resolution of a game often requires an emotional shift within the therapist.

Additional information

Author information

Jo Stuthridge

Author Biography
Jo Stuthridge, MSc, is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy), a member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists, and a registered psychotherapist in New Zealand. She maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Dunedin and is director of the Physis Institute, which offers training in transactional analysis. She is currently a Teaching and Research Associate with the Department of Psychotherapy and Counselling at Auckland University of Technology and a coeditor of the Transactional Analysis Journal. Jo can be reached at 85 Cliffs Rd., Dunedin 9012, New Zealand; email: . The author is deeply grateful to the clients who have allowed her to share these stories.
 

People also read