This study compared how novice and experienced therapists deal with the therapeutic relationship. Hoffman and Gill's (1988a, 1988b) “patient's experience of the relationship with the therapist” method was used to identify adolescent patients' allusions to the transference. The experienced therapists were quite active in responding to the transference allusions, whereas the novices rarely commented on them. The experienced therapists made the transference a central focus of therapy, and almost all of their transference interventions were accepted by the adolescents. By contrast, the novices appeared to feel quite threatened by their patients' overt and covert transference feelings, and their patients frequently rejected their therapy-related interventions. Based on the results of the study, some suggestions for training are made.