A review of the counselling and psychotherapy literature quickly reveals the centrality of self-awareness to the therapeutic process, however, contradictory findings and varied points of emphasis have resulted in the notion of self-awareness being more implicit than explicit. Within counselling and psychotherapy, the personal processes and reactions of the therapist are often understood in terms of countertransference . From this perspective, self-insight is essential for the counsellor to manage and utilize their countertransferential reactions in a manner that does not impede the therapeutic process . Interestingly, some scholars have discussed a type of self-awareness that can be potentially hindering to the therapeutic process. Williams (2003) examined therapists’ momentary states of self- awareness, defined as “momentary attention to his or her own thoughts, feelings, physi- ological responses and behaviours (p. 178)”, as a potential hindrance to counselling. Williams found that this type of momentary self-absorption was inversely related to cli- ents’ perceptions of therapist helpfulness. In a later study, Fauth and Williams (2005) demonstrated that therapists’ in-session self-awareness did not hinder the counseling process unless the intensity of self-awareness distracted the therapist from the client. These results led Williams (2008) to argue that self-focused attention is a different type of self-awareness than that associated with insight.