Psychotherapeutic relationship from the perspective of psychotherapy science

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the controversial development of practice guidelines and em­pirically suported treatments, which neglect influence of therapeutic relationship, client's nondiagnostic characteristics, the person of the therapist and matching, mutuality of different personal characteristics, processes and elements of therapeutic context in real time. On the other hand the research of effectiveness of psychotherapy has shown that psychotherapeutic relati­onship and working alliance are the most important catalysts of therapeutic change across all psychotherapeutic modalites and that they are the best predictors of therapeutic outcome. Epi­stemological shifts in therapeutic theory and practice, which were influenced by second order cybernetic, theory of self-organization, constructivism, baby research, theory of intersubjectivity etc. have pointed out the co-participation, mutuality and moments of meeting in the therapeutic relationship, where techniques and interventions are relational acts in co-creation of therapeutic context. Therapeutic changes are very conected with matchings, mutualities, sinhronizations which occure between self-organizing proceses inside and between the therapist and the client in the safe and stable environment, which can established by good working alliance: bond, negoti­ating therapeutic goals and tasks.