Burling stresses the necessity for acquainting the patient with the workings of transference in a relationship between the psychiatric social worker and the child. In this way he believes the child can be made to face and express his strong attachments to the worker and so prevent him from feeling that he must escape from an unbearable love situation with the worker.

The lack of this understanding he believes is the cause of the breaking up of the relationship between worker and client and tends to make therapy more difficult, if not impossible. The crux of therapy lies in the worker understanding the workings and usage to which the transference can be put, namely, to help the patient outgrow his dependency.