Countertransference issues when the therapist is ill or disabled

Multiple external life events and vicissitudes can impinge upon the traditional privacy and isolation of the usual psychotherapy situation and relationship. Among these are major illness and disability in the therapist, which will activate conscious and unconscious responses in both patient and therapist. If worked with and well handled by the participants, such events may stimulate therapeutic growth and working through of multiple issues related to illness, separation, death, anxiety, and fantasies of omnipotence and idealization. However, multiple factors in both patient and therapist may combine to foster avoidance of the conflicts that have been activated. To the extent that countertransference responses in the therapist interfere with his/her ability to bring conscious attention to these issues, a potentially valuable therapeutic opportunity may be lost. It is important for therapists to therapists to anticipate such situations, and to make use of colleague consultation to assist in managing them.