The Impacts of Taiwan Group Counselor's Family-of-Origin Experiences and Training Levels on Countertransference Reaction

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate group counselors’ counter transference reactions toward their clients who provoked the counselors’ strong emotions in a counseling group and the related factors as family-of-origin experience and training level in Taiwan. Using the Ratings of Emtional Attitudes to Client by Therapist Scale (REACT) and the Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS), 73 group counselors in Taiwan reported their counter transference and family-of-origin experiences in this study. The factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha (, and split-half correlation revealed overall acceptable validity and high reliability of the Chinese version of the REACT and FOS. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and multiple regression analysis were applied to the data collection. The major findings were as follows: (a) novice counselors reported significantly stronger counter transference feelings than the experienced counselors; (b)novice counselors perceived early family experiences similarly to experienced counselors, however, on the “acceptance of loss” factor the experienced counselors reported better family experiences than did novice counselors; (c) counselors who perceived better or worse family-of-origin experiences did not have did not have different counter transference experiences in group counseling; and (d) counter transference scores were significantly affected by training level; the four FOS factor and hours of counseling experience did make a contribution to the prediction of the REACT scores, but the contribution was not unique. Factor IV (trust) of the FOS was the only predictor at the significance level of .05 on countertransference reaction. These findings may be useful for counselor educators, counseling researchers, and counselors to emphasize the counter transference phenomenon and family background in counseling. Recommendations were provided fro future studies which would be important in developing instruments for assessing counter transference as well as improving counselor education and supervision programs in Taiwan.