The Therapeutic Relationship Is It Important?

Therapy can be tough!!!

Not just for the client...

but also for the therapist.

Therapist balance many things during sessions.

From their own thoughts (countertransference; Marmosh, Gelso, Markin, Majors, Mallory, & Choi, 2009)...

to their clients needs.

How can therapists be effective with so much to worry about?

The answer is...

The Therapeutic Relationship!!!

This is simply the attitudes and feeling expressed...

by both client and therapist (Norcross & Lambert, 2011)

Client outcomes are directly correlated with the relationship (Coco, Gullo, Prestano, & Gelso, 2011)

A good relationship generally means better outcomes (Norcross & Lambert, 2011)

An unestablished therapeutic relationship on the other hand...

renders even the most effective therapeutic techniques useless (Norcross & Lambert, 2012)

What makes a good relationship, though?

Genuineness and realism (Coco et al., 2011)

Believing that the relationship is genuine is important...

and having an accurate view (realism) is also important...

for both the client and the therapist...

early in the relationship ...

but only if therapy was conducted over several sessions (Gullo, Coco, & Gelso, 2012).

What about clients that only needed brief psychotherapy?

Can they be helped?

Clients that conclude therapy after only a few sessions...

achieve better outcomes by completing tasks (Gullo et al, 2012).

How does the relationship form, though?

Clients perception of the relationship is crucial.

Stronger initial relationships correlate with better mental health outcomes.

The therapist’s views of the relationship when beginning therapy...

was not correlated with mental health outcomes, however (Gelso, Kivlighan, Busa-Knepp, Spiegel, Ain, Hummel, Ma, & Markin, 2012).

Therapist’s rating are not unimportant, however (Coco et al., 2011).

Therapists’ initial ratings were consistently in the middle (Gelso et al., 2012).

The increase in therapists’ relationship with clients...

is highly responsible for psychotherapy success (Gelso et al., 2012; Norcross & Lambert, 2011).

Following therapy’s conclusion, therapists’ perception of the relationship...

was positively correlated with mental health outcomes (Marmosh et al

Is anything else involved?

If clients suffer from anxiety cause by relationships...

a strong relationship is unlikely to develop (Marmosh et al., 2011).