What facilitates countertransference management? The roles of therapist meditation, mindfulness, and self-differentiation

Countertransference (CT) reactions can negatively affect psychotherapy, and research has found that effectively managing these reactions is positively associated with psychotherapy outcome (Hayes, Gelso, & Hummel, 2011). Therefore, it is important to understand factors that might facilitate CT management. In this study, 78 therapist trainees completed measures of meditation experience, mindfulness, and self-differentiation, and their supervisors rated trainees' CT management qualities. Results indicated that trainees' meditation experience predicted CT management qualities but self-differentiation did not; one aspect of mindfulness, non-reactivity, was related to CT management qualities. Implications for theory, practice, research, and supervision are discussed.