“Too Close to Home”: Women Social Workers’ Gendered Countertransference Experiences with Incel Clients

This article explores how women social workers understand and experience gender-based countertransference (GBCT) during clinical sessions with incel clients. Using simulation-based research methods to observe women-identifying social workers ( n = 20) engage an incel client played by a trained actor, participants reflected on their emotional, cognitive, and somatic responses to working with clients who express misogynistic or ideologically oppositional views. Findings reveal that women social workers understand GBCT as a relational and expected gendered dynamic in clinical work, shaped by value conflicts and personal boundary challenges. At the same time, GBCT was experienced as embodied alarm, ranging from anger and defensiveness to anxiety, disorientation, and heightened vigilance. These reactions sometimes disrupted participants’ ability to sustain empathy and presence, often making the therapeutic dynamic feel unsafe or destabilizing. Many reported role tension between professional responsibilities and personal values, especially when clients echo lived experiences of gendered harm. The article underscores the emotional labour and moral strain clinicians face when working with incel clients and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the gendered and embodied nature of countertransference in clinical work. By highlighting these experiences, this research opens space for more honest reflection on how gender, power, and ideology shape therapeutic relationships.