Abstract
This research set out to explore the experience of female psychotherapists’ working
with traditional male clients. It sought to discover the therapists’ preconceptions about
this client group. This research also endevoured to discover how, if at all, erotic
transference and countertransference impacted upon female psychotherapists’ work
with traditional male clients. This was considered through the areas of gender
stereotyping and male gender roles, male emotionality, psychotherapist gender
competence and erotic transference and countertransference. A qualitative research
method was employed for this study. Central to this was the carrying out of semistructured
interviews with a purposive sample of five fully accredited female
psychotherapists. The therapists’ orientations included Humanistic, Integrative and
Psychodynamic. The interviews elicited the participants’ experiences, feelings and
thoughts on the topic. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and subsequently
subjected to a thematic analysis. Three themes arose: female psychotherapists’
experience of their traditional male clients, female psychotherapists’ work with their
traditional male clients and female psychotherapists’ experience of erotic transference
and countertransference with their traditional male clients. The findings were
somewhat in keeping with the material found in the prevailing literature on the topic.
The results demonstrated conflicts between the requirements of psychotherapy and
traditional male gender role constraints. Dissimilarities were found between how
traditional men manage stress and also how they express emotion in comparison to
female clients. The majority of the participants reported that they alter their approach
when working with their traditional male clients. Participants identified straight -
talking as most helpful in their work with this cohort of men. Expectations on behalf
of the therapist, that their client reveal emotions readily, were reported to be least
helpful. Only two out of the five therapists reported experiencing erotic transference
from a male client. None of the participants informed of having had erotic
countertransference towards a male client. A general dis-ease with the topic of erotic
transference and countertransference was described by all of the psychotherapists. Author keywords: Gender, female therapist, traditional males, clients, gender steretyping, gender competence
