Dancing with Words: Transference and Countertransference in Biblio/Poetry Therapy

Storytelling and active listening in interaction processes have been a vital core of biblio/poetry therapy long before current “narrative therapies.” The invention of the self and others through expressive resources inherent in language is incorporated in this article within biblio/poetry therapy. Especially poetic communication conveys, through texts, “transformative” transferences and countertransferences that foster the creative imagination, “dancing with words.” The author also proposes that there can be “static” textual transferences and countertransferences that maintain a monological stalemate, a desert of words. Biblio/poetry therapy is seen as a performance scene where co-tellings, co-constructions and co-interpretations of life intermingle, and create shifting worlds of meaning.