NARRATIVE RESEARCH INTO EROTIC COUNTER- TRANSFERENCE IN A FEMALE THERAPIST–MALE PATIENT ENCOUNTER STEPHANIE ELLIOTT 1 , DEL LOEWENTHAL and DENNIS GREENWOOD This paper presents an example of practitioner research, using Hollway and Jefferson’s (2000) Free Association Narrative Method. It examines a trainee psychotherapist’s experience of erotic counter-transference. The methodology associated with narrative method and the possibility of using it as a form of practitioner research are explored. Then follows a literature review regarding erotic counter- transference. Subsequently, a case history is presented as the research material and its core episode is analysed. The research outcome provides a form of ‘practice-based evidence’. The paper concludes by reflecting on whether the narrative method has a place as a form of practitioner research in psychotherapy, in view of the experience of this particular study. In psychotherapy, the need for practice-based research has long been recognized. McLeod (2002: 186) clarifies this when he states, ‘Presumably most researchers set up studies at least partially because the research makes some connection with dilemmas and questions arising from their own practice’. Osborne (1990) states that in the past therapists have felt compelled to use quantitative research methods in order to strengthen the credibility of their theories. Yet, not all aspects of therapeutic practice are accessible to quantitative methods. Osborne believes that this has led to a distortion through the measurement requirements. He stresses that nowadays this need not be the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy ISSN 0266-8734 print/ISSN 1474-9734 online # 2007 The Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the NHS http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/02668730701535594 233 1 Stephanie Elliott is a Senior Mental Health Nurse within the NHS as well as a psychotherapist/ counsellor in HM Prisons. This paper was based on the dissertation submitted for an MSc degree at the University of Surrey (Elliott 2005) and was presented at a Seminar on ‘Research methods in emotional learning and well-being’, on 17 June 2005 at Roehampton University. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (September 2007) Vol. 21, No. 3, 233–249