‘It ain't easy growing up in World War III’: countertransference complications in work with young people who have experienced domestic violence

Work that involves close engagement with severely damaged young people will provoke powerful and sometimes counterproductive emotional reactions in professionals. A number of therapeutic encounters with young patients who have experienced violence in family life are described to highlight some of the experiential and technical aspects involved and the varied ways in which the theme of domestic violence may, or may not, resonate in the transference. In some instances therapy takes place against a background of continuing abuse; in others the therapist's reaction is complicated by emotions generated in the political and social domain. Copyright © 2005 The British Association of Psychotherapists