Countertransference: Skilful Techniques to Ethically Manage It
Allison Broennimann worked with a consultant for years before she noticed the pattern. Almost every ethical dilemma she had landed in traced back to her own attachment style. Not because there was anything wrong with it, but because the way she related shaped what she noticed in the room, what she let go, and where she got stuck. Knowing that did not make the dilemmas stop. It made them recognisable earlier.
Her second observation is the one clinicians tend to react to. When we agonise over an ethical decision we think about the client, the licensing board and the insurer, and we leave ourselves off the list. She points out that ethical decision-making is supposed to include the therapist, that clients carry responsibilities too, and that the people writing the codes are usually not the people sitting in the room applying them.
Three hours, working from depth psychology. She covers the ethical dilemmas that have stayed the same for thirty years and which of them actually generate complaints, which is not the same list. Then an attachment model, offered so you can find your own blind spots before you walk into them. Then vignettes, exercises, and the consultative tools she uses with colleagues. She is unusually open about her own history with all of this, including two decades of her own analysis and years of ongoing consultation.
You’ll walk away with
- Your own attachment pattern read as a clinical variable, and a way to see which ethical situations you personally are most likely to walk into
- The recognition that you are one of the parties the ethical decision has to protect, and what changes in your reasoning once you include yourself
- The four domains pulling in different directions in any real dilemma, your client, yourself, your registration and your insurer, and what to do when they genuinely conflict
- Which ethical dilemmas cause clinicians the most distress and which ones actually produce complaints, which turn out to be different problems
- Practice policies as a form of self-protection, covering scheduling, non-payment, threats, disrespect in session and non-compliance with treatment
- Scope of practice under real conditions, including the pull to keep working with someone when no one else is available and referral feels like abandonment
- Somatic, affective, cognitive and attachment-based patterns in your own therapeutic style, and a personal framework for tracking your responses
- Language for naming and containing a countertransference response inside the relationship rather than only in supervision, with sample dialogue
- Worked vignettes, including a long-term client whose drinking exceeded what could be held in an outpatient practice, and the conversation that followed
- Consultative tools from depth practice that you can use with colleagues, so this becomes an ongoing process rather than a one-off reflection
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 3 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever 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 4
- Topics 0
- Duration 3 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English