Development of a Family Therapist’s Countertransference Management Training Program and Verification of its Effectiveness

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the effectiveness of a countertransference management training program to help family therapists become more professional by improving their ability to manage and utilize countertransference. Methods: To this end, a program consisting of eight sessions was developed according to the group counseling program development model of Cheon Seong-moon et al. (2017). To verify the effectiveness of the program, 16 family therapists who wanted to participate in the program were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups and compared at pre-, post-, and follow-up time points. The measures of counselor self-reflection, countertransference behavior, and case understanding ability scales were analyzed using mixed ANOVA. Results: The results showed that the program had a significant effect on improving the level of counselor self-reflection and reducing countertransference behaviors but did not significantly affect the improvement of family therapists' case understanding skills. Conclusions: This study helps build capacity for interventions in family counseling. Recommendations and implications for further research are discussed based on the findings.