UK Life Coaching Journal

Transference… what is it, exactly?    

Transference has been called “the projecting of a perfect picture upon an imperfect screen.”  It forms the basis of many human relationships, in which one person unconsciously endows qualities of perfection upon another.  As this sets up an unequal power balance between the two people involved, the ‘lesser’ will typically project (or transfer) their longed-for ideal on to the ’greater’, attributing to them numinous or god-like qualities.

The role of a truly professional coach is to acknowledge the inevitability of a greater or lesser degree of transference in the ’expert’/client dialogue and to use the process to empower or otherwise benefit the client, rather than regard the client as a means to achieve the coach’s own materialistic ends.

In the traditional professions the effect of transference is relatively small because the role of the expert is  primarily defined by the function of the skill-sets involved (e.g., law, medicine, etc.)  But this is not the case in the relatively recent practices of psychodynamic and cognitive therapy, which owe their powerful influence almost entirely to the phenomenon of transference.  These practitioners, like their age-old religious counterparts, keep the fact of transference a professional secret in the belief that it will act as an effective tool only as long it remains as a mystery to its clients.

It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of the quick-fix coach ‘training’ courses presently on offer don’t even recognise that transference exists!  The inevitable result is that, by throwing the baby out with the bathwater, they lack power and insight and work only over the short term, if at all.

In direct contrast, the unitive approach to coaching provides a level playing field where coach and client face each other as equals.  Instead of assuming a directive role, it facilitates the client’s awareness of the process of transference when and if it occurs.  By reflecting previously denied personal power habitually surrendered to ‘experts’ and authority figures, it brings the creative authenticity of each individual back home where it belongs.