Nuances and Clarifications Concerning the Notions of Therapeutic Relationship and Working Alliance (Therapeutic Alliance)
Our individual attachment style, or the evolving contact style derived from it, influences the characteristic manner in which we approach others and the way we interpret the world and interactions in general. The complex process of psychotherapy is essentially comprised of two major parts: the therapeutic relationship and techniques. The therapeutic relationship is difficult to define, even more challenging to clinically understand, and empirically studying it rises difficulties. However, despite the existence of various psychotherapeutic schools, it is universally accepted that a quality therapeutic relationship is a necessary condition for favourable therapy outcomes. In this paper, we aim to contribute to the vast field of psychotherapy with some clarifications that we believe are useful concerning two notions used in practice and specialised literature: the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic alliance (working alliance).
Article’s history:
Received 25th of October, 2023; Received in revised form 24th of November, 2023; Accepted 27th of November, 2023; Published as article in Volume I, Issue 1, 2023.
Copyright© 2023 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: therapeutic relationship, therapeutic alliance, emotional connection, human interaction, emotional experience.
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