Transference and Countertransference Dynamics in a Multifamily Group for Transgender Adolescents

• DOI: 10.1521/prev.2021.108.4.457
• Publication Date: 2021-12-01T17:01:55Z
• Authors: Nicolas Rabain
• Keywords: Parents; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Adolescent; 5. Gender equality; Humans; Transference, Psychology; Countertransference; Child; Transgender Persons; 3. Good health

This article is an account of a pioneering multifamily group for transgender adolescents. Meetings were conducted in a Sexual Identity Consultation Service in a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department in Paris. In addition to enabling both teenagers and their parents to escape a certain form of isolation, this novel mental health care setting also reinforced the ability of participants to free associate and to cathect substitute objects. The author highlights specific characteristics of transference movements and countertransference reactions of the therapists in this framework. An additional goal is to promote these innovative groups and to recommend similar groups for transgender adolescents and their parents.