Final answer:
The term for a client projecting past emotional feelings onto a counselor is transference. It is crucial in psychoanalytic therapy and differs from countertransference, which is therapist's projection onto the client.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that refers to a client's projecting past emotional feelings and/or attitudes onto the counselor is transference. This concept is important in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies. During transference, the client may unconsciously redirect or transfer feelings from a significant person, typically from their childhood, onto the therapist. Countertransference is the reverse situation where a therapist projects their own unresolved feelings onto the client. Other defense mechanisms, like reaction formation and sublimation, involve different ways of dealing with anxiety and internal conflicts, but they do not specifically describe the projection of feelings onto a therapist.