Psykodynamiska terapeuters upplevelse av terapiprocessen med anknytningstraumatiserade klienter

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to investigate how psychotherapists experience the therapeutic process in psychodynamic therapy with clients who have an attachment trauma. The study tried to answer the following questions: 1) What is characteristic for the relationship between the therapists and the clients with attachment trauma? 2) How do the therapists handle their own reactions in relation to the clients? Semi-structured interviews were accomplished with six licensed psychotherapists who have experience of working with clients with attachment trauma. The transcripts were analyzed with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and four main themes were identified: 1) Emotional duality. 2) Endure the emotional storm. 3) Trying to understand. 4) Become a parent. Characteristic for the relationship were an emotional duality, with both moments of intense emotional contact and moments of detachment. The therapists experienced that they became significant, like parents, to their clients. Furthermore the therapists were verbally attacked by their clients. During the process the therapists experienced heavy feelings, which they tried to bear and understand helped by theory. In the discussion the importance of being present in moments of detachment is emphasized. The relationship between therapist and client is conceptualized as an attachment relationship, where the non-verbal communication was central.