Transferencetransference

Transference is a person projecting onto someone in the present the feelings and expectations belonging to an important relationship in the past. A client may, without realizing it, see in their coach an authoritarian parent or a disapproving teacher, and react accordingly. This concept comes from psychoanalysis, but it appears in some form in every close relationship. Transference is the place where the past quietly mixes into the present relationship. In coaching no clinical analysis is done, but in moments when a reaction seems out of proportion, being aware of this helps keep the relationship clearer.