•In this article we analyze the therapy course of a client with a borderline personality disorder. We mainly focus on problems in her relational functioning, which also appear recurrently in the therapeutic contact. Continued exploring and working through these difficulties with an authentic and reliable therapist, has a de-mining effect: client’s frustrated relational needs are recognized and satisfied and she succeeds in developing a more adaptive interaction style. By means of the Leuven Systematic Case-study Protocol ( LSCP ) the therapy course is systematically screened and, if necessary, redirected. Although such an approach is time-intensive and demands an extra mental effort of both parties, the therapeutic profit is large: it helps both the client and the therapist to enter the mine field with relative peace, security and predictability.
This study examines the impact of the therapists’ awareness of their own ‘objective’ countertransference reactions on the clients’ satisfaction with treatment (i.e. the working alliance). ‘Objective’ countertransference refers to covert psychological reactions of therapists that are evoked by clients’ maladaptive interpersonal styles. ‘Objective countertransference’ was measured with the Impact Message Inventory Circumplex ( IMI-C); ‘Clients’ satisfaction’ was measured with the Session Rating Scale ( SRS ). In a randomized controlled design, therapists in the experimental group filled out the IMI-C, receiving graphical feedback about their IMI-C scores, in contrast to therapists in the control condition. All clients rated the working alliance after each treatment session. Clients of therapists in the experimental condition rated treatment sessions more positively than clients of therapists in the control condition.