Interpreting the transference has been considered a core ingredient in psychodynamic psychotherapy. The effects of analyzing the transference are probably dependent on certain characteristics of the interventions themselves and the context in which transference interventions are given. The present study describes the development and use of a therapy process rating scale (Transference Work Scale; TWS) constructed to identify, categorize, and explore work with the transference. TWS has subscales that rate timing, content, and valence of the transference interventions, as well as response from the patient. Transcribed segments (10 min) from 51 different patients were scored with TWS by 2 independent raters. The interrater agreement on the TWS items was good to excellent. Clinical examples of transference work were also rated using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB). TWS and SASB supplement each other. TWS might be a potentially useful tool to explore the interaction of timing, category, and valence of transference work in predicting in-session patient response as well as treatment outcome.
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