Gelso, Charles

Bio

I received my doctoral degree from Ohio State University in 1970. After working at our counseling center for 12 years, I joined the Psychology Department as a full-time professor in 1982. I became an Emeritus Professor in 2013. My theoretical, research, and clinical interests focus on the patient-therapist relationship in psychotherapy. I have theorized that all therapeutic relationships consist of a working alliance, a personal or "real" relationship, and a transference-countertransference configuration. Although these components all are rooted in psychoanalytic theory, my attempt has been to theorize about and empirically investigate their operations in diverse psychotherapists. I have empirically studied all of the elements of this tripartite model, and my research program along with clinical experience has allowed me to write book-length treatments of two of the components: countertransference (Gelso & Hayes, 2007) and the real relationship (Gelso, 2011). I recently had a book published (Gelso, 2019, The therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy practice, NY: Routledge) on how the tripartite model and the therapeutic relationship more generally operate in the practice of psychotherapy. My other main area of interest is research training in applied areas of psychology, particularly clinical and counseling psychology. Here I have developed a theory of the ingredients of training that, when present, facilitate graduate students' interest in, self-efficacy about, and production of research during their graduate training and afterwards. The product of over three decades of research on this theory has been presented in a recent publication (Gelso, Baumann, Chui, & Savela, A., 2013). I have also conducted individual psychotherapy throughout my career, and I currently see patients through my private practice. My approach to treatment is psychodynamic, although I do integrate other theories as is indicated.