Client attachment to therapist: Relations to transference and client recollections of parental caregiving.

Abstract

This study examined the relations between client attachment to the therapist and therapist perceptions of transference, as well as between client attachment and recollections of parental caregiving. Participants were 51 client-therapist pairs in ongoing therapy. After a therapy session, clients completed a measure of their attachment to their therapists and a measure of their perceptions of parental caregiving during childhood. Therapists rated levels of positive and negative, and amount of, client transference. Both secure and preoccupied-merger attachment were positively related to both negative transference and amount of transference. Level of avoidant-fearful attachment was not correlated with any type of transference. Insecure attachment to the therapist was associated with more negative recollections of parental caregiving.