Understanding countertransference reactions to forensic clients with a personality disorder diagnosis: an empirical study using the Countertransference Questionnaire

Aims This study sought to investigate the relationship between the countertransference (CT) reactions of therapeutic practitioners working in forensic services with clients with a personality disorder (PD). It examined the relationship between CT reactions and client PD as well as the influence of the client’s offending background and the service in which the practitioner was working. Method A sample of practitioners (N=17) who had recently engaged in 1:1 psychologically informed work in a forensic service with a client with PD were invited to complete an online survey. The survey used the 79-item Countertransference Questionnaire (CTQ) (Zittel & Westen, 2003) alongside demographic questions about the practitioner and their client. The CTQ results placed practitioners into one of eight CT ‘domains’. Results Chi-square analyses of relationships between CT and client PD diagnosis, client offence history and service setting were utilised. None of the tests were statistically significant. Conclusion Lack of statistical significance suggests that the CT reactions of forensic practitioners are not necessarily directly related to their client’s pathology or their working environment. The results provide interesting suggestions for future research to better understand the work of forensic practitioners and their clients in comparison to their non-forensic counterparts