Countertransference: Skilful Techniques to Ethically Manage It
What is countertransference, and how does it manifest in therapy? Countertransference refers to the therapist’s emotional responses to a client’s projections (transference), which are often unconscious. While this dynamic is natural, managing it effectively is crucial to avoid ethical and legal risks. Understanding and navigating countertransference can not only protect you professionally but also enhance your therapeutic work and foster your growth as a clinician.
This on-demand, prerecorded training will explore how countertransference arises, how it can influence your clinical practice, and how to use it as a tool for deeper therapeutic connection and self-awareness. You will learn to recognize your own attachment style and its impact on countertransference, helping you identify potential blind spots and vulnerabilities in your therapeutic approach.
Drawing on case examples and depth therapy perspectives, this workshop will equip you with practical techniques for ethically managing countertransference and navigating common ethical dilemmas. Through self-reflection and consultation, you’ll deepen your understanding of these dynamics, improving both your clinical effectiveness and personal development.
Gain a deeper understanding of how to attend to countertransference in a way that supports both your clients and your own ongoing growth as a therapist.
Learning Objectives:
This training will provide participants clinical knowledge and tools to:
- Name four ethical boundaries most vulnerable to countertransference, and three ways to ethically handle them in your practice.
- Identify and describe at least one somatic, affective, cognitive and attachment based piece of information about your therapy style. Use this information to define your own decision tree to explore and process your countertransference responses and dialogue.
- Using short sample dialogues and parallel processes, explore and learn to contain and name your countertransference responses within your client-provider relationships.
- Learn and practice in-depth consultative reflective tools and techniques that promote insight about your own countertransference as they arise.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this event includes psychologists, social workers, counselors, MFT’s, psychiatrists and other clinical mental health professionals.
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 3 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
When clinicians need to understand the intersection of brain function and emotional healing, they learn from Allison Broennimann. Her unique combination of neuropsychology expertise and depth therapy training helps practitioners navigate complex cases where cognitive function meets psychological trauma.
With over a decade of clinical experience, Dr. Broennimann has built her practice around the understanding that lasting therapeutic change requires attention to both brain-based patterns and unconscious emotional processes. Her work spans private practice in San Francisco, hospital-based neuropsychology at Alameda Health System, and specialised care for veterans at the SF VA Medical Center - giving her rare insight into how trauma, brain injury, and mood disorders intersect in clinical practice.
Her specialty areas include depth psychotherapy, neuropsychological assessment, trauma treatment, and attachment work, with particular expertise serving LGBTQ+ clients and those with traumatic brain injury. What makes her approach distinctive is the integration of neuropsychological understanding with depth psychology principles. She helps clinicians recognise when cognitive symptoms mask emotional wounds and when psychological distress reflects underlying neurological factors.
In her training programs, Dr. Broennimann teaches practitioners how to conduct comprehensive assessments that capture both cognitive functioning and emotional dynamics. Her methods help clinicians develop treatment plans that address the whole person - not just symptoms - while providing concrete tools for working with complex presentations like codependency, attachment trauma, and mood disorders complicated by brain injury.
For your practice, expect to gain skills in integrating neuropsychological insights with psychotherapeutic interventions, practical frameworks for working with LGBTQ+ clients, and assessment techniques that reveal the deeper patterns driving client struggles.
Qualifications
- Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto University, 2010
- M.S., Clinical Psychology, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto University, 2008
- Certificate Program in Neuropsychological Assessment, 2008
- B.A., Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2002
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist, California (PSY 24463), 2011
Professional Memberships
- American Psychological Association (Division 22, Rehabilitation Psychology; Division 40, Neuropsychology)
- The Northern California Neuropsychology Forum
- National Academy of Neuropsychology
Teaching & Roles
- Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice, San Francisco, 2011–present
- Depth Therapy Expert, Allison Therapy
- Attending Clinical Neuropsychologist, Alameda Health System, 2015–2017
- Attending Neuropsychologist, Alameda Neuropsych, Inc., 2011–2015
- Postdoctoral Fellow, SF VA Medical Center, 2010–2011
Featured & Recognition
- Mental health writer and co-author (Instagram/YouTube), 2023–2025
- Active contributor to neuropsychology and depth therapy education
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English