Therapeutic Relationship Essay

849 Words4 Pages

What is therapeutic alliance/therapeutic relationship? It is the relationship of trust between the client and the therapist that allows them to work together effectively. It helps the client to believe that their therapist is trustworthy and has their best interest at heart. For instance, the therapist might make the client mad or uncomfortable about a certain situation; because their relationship is in a healthy space the client proceeds along because he/she still feels safe and trust their therapist. Consistency, respect, and trust are important building blocks towards a good therapeutic relationship. Therapists are advised to show warmth, empathy, and genuineness. As with any other social relationship, the therapeutic relationship has limits …show more content…

However, in some scenarios, deviance in a member of the family is a sign of underlying family dysfunction, the therapist needs to make an alliance with each one of the family members. Managing couples and family therapy can be demanding, along with having advantages and disadvantages. For a beginner therapist, just meeting with the family can be a challenge. Some families can be more noisy and confrontational than an individual therapy session. All to often, couples and families are sent to therapy involuntary, which leads to a high rate of termination in the beginning phase of treatment for the family. Findings from a case study published in 2000 in Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, (Vol 22, No. 1), indicated that families found therapeutic therapy to be ineffective for them. They also stressed how they were not prepared for what was going on during the session. They were faced with many things, such as a reflecting team, the one-way mirror, and cameras that they were not expecting. This made it difficult initially for them to concentrate, and they felt distracted from what was happening in the room. In another study by Douglas Rait, he states how resistance can turn into a good way to get information to help make a better, much