An Exploration of Transference Interventions in Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Adolescents Suffering from Depression

This is a qualitative study which aimed to clarify and understand the
use and impact of transference interventions in Short Term Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapy with young people. It aimed at shedding light on how
transference interventions are formulated by the therapists, when and how they
are delivered, and what they address. It also sought to show how the
understanding of transference phenomena is negotiated between therapist and
patient in their verbal interaction. Conversation Analysis was used
as the methodological approach to look at how transference interventions are
formulated and how patients and therapists interact with one another after a
transference intervention is delivered. A Thematic Analysis was applied to the
data to look at what themes emerged in the transference interventions.
Through this study I hope to clarify aspects of the technique in handling the
transference in STPP with adolescents: what ways of thinking and handling the
transference are more conducive to opening up new thoughts for therapist and
patient and lead to elaboration and which others hinder elaboration and create
an impasse. More broadly the study aimed at complementing and enriching
findings from other studies in the same field, providing detailed material
through a fine-grained analysis of the rich material that tape recordings can
provide.