Erotic Transference: Navigating the Heart of Psychosexual Therapy

Erotic transference is one of the most challenging and least-discussed phenomena in therapeutic practice. Research suggests that up to 90% of therapists experience erotic countertransference at some point in their careers, yet fewer than 20% receive adequate training in working with it. For psychosexual therapists, this is not a peripheral issue, it is central to the work. The inability to recognise and respond to erotic transference means failing to access the core of the client’s presenting problem.

This 3-hour workshop offers a robust theoretical and clinical framework for understanding and working with erotic transference. Drawing on psychoanalytic concepts including projective identification (Klein), the container-contained model (Bion), and the analytic third (Ogden), we explore how erotic feelings in the therapy room are not problems to be managed but communications to be understood.

Through two detailed case studies, participants will learn to distinguish eros in transference, countertransference, resistance, and enactment. We introduce a practical five-phase framework: Receive, Contain, Process, Understand, Interpret, for responding to erotic transference with skill and ethical integrity. The workshop also addresses red flags, ethical boundaries, and the vital role of supervision and personal therapy in sustaining this work.

Suitable For:
Psychosexual therapists, relationship therapists, and clinicians working with intimacy and desire

Duration: 3 Hours (including two 10-minute breaks)