Therapist Vulnerability, Countertransference, and Emotional Engagement in Relational Psychotherapy

Presented by Dr Karen Maroda

1 August, 2026, 8:00-10:00am (AEST)

An ANZAP Online Live Webinar

The role of the therapist in a more interactive treatment is in a state of flux. How much should the analyst disclose and when? Do we still rely primarily on interpretation or does the two-person relational model beg for more innovation? Does enactment satisfy the mandate for a paradigm that includes the therapist’s participation? Or do we need to formulate a less passive approach to ongoing dynamics between therapist and client?

This webinar will focus on the therapist’s vulnerability, including motivations for not only our vocational choice, but also our preferred theory and interventions. Understanding how our roles in our families of origin contribute to an over-reliance on being passive and supportive, while giving short shrift to our own needs and feelings, has arguably stalled the development of a broader and deeper relational model. Additionally, this program presentation will focus on accepting countertransference feelings, including negative ones and using them constructively for the purpose of emotional engagement and vital feedback for the client.

Dr Karen J. Maroda, Ph.D., ABPP, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin and in private practice in Milwaukee, WI. She is board certified in psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology, a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis, and a full member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association. She is the author of four books, The Power of Countertransference, Seduction, Surrender and Transformation, Psychodynamic Techniques (new second edition just released)  and The Analyst’s Vulnerability, as well as numerous journal articles and book reviews.  Additionally, she sits on the editorial boards of The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Psychoanalytic Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis and gives lectures and workshops both nationally and internationally.

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