Countertransference in religious therapists of religious patients

The unique interaction between religious psychotherapists and religious patients is examined from the standpoint of various distortive countertransference reactions which may arise in this context. The destructive potential of these reactions stems primarily from mutual neurotic needs for religious belief. The satisfaction of these needs is reinforced by the social acceptability of the familial reaction between therapists and patients of like religious beliefs. Seven factors are discussed which are believed necessary for understanding the destructive and constructive potentials for such reactions.