In the 1950s, Carl Rogers had written a paper entitled ‘ The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change’, published in the Journal of Consulting Psychology. This introduced the idea that the therapeutic relationship is key, and three of the conditions – congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy, which have subsequently become known as the ‘core conditions’ – have come to be accepted by practitioners of all modalities as vital to establishing this relationship. Qualitative research collects data that describes the quality of experience, while quantitative research gathers data relating to quantity (i.e. facts and figures). Each type of research has its pros and cons, and often the two can be combined for strong research results; a balance is important. The following video clips have been taken from seminars hosted by Prof Robert Schweitzer in 2021 at the School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. My thanks to Robert Schweitzer, and his students Jeremy Vernon and Dymphna van der Leij, for the opportunity to dialogue on the topic of therapeutic use of self and reproduce clips of the video here:

CAT, the Therapeutic Relationship and Working with People CAT, the Therapeutic Relationship and Working with People

Therapist empathic understanding: the therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference. Accurate empathy on the part of the therapist helps the client believe the therapist’s unconditional love for them. The transferential/countertransferential relationship refers to the idea that we may remind a client of someone from their past, or vice versa, and the related feelings from the past may be transferred to the present, so affecting the therapeutic relationship. If this happens, it is important to explore the issue in supervision. My own perspective is that it is important as a therapist is to have some underlying principles, but to hold them lightly; as Jung said: “learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul” . Overall, there are really useful principles of therapeutic practice within Rogers approach that speak to me in my growing and deepening work with clients in psychological coaching The RRP is the suggested or Recommended Retail Price of a product, set by the publisher or manufacturer. What do our therapeutic relationships with clients involve? How do we create a safe space for clients to go exploring? What are we doing when we show clients respect and caring, attuned attention or when we challenge them to grow? How is our way of being with clients therapeutic? These questions around ‘doing’ and ‘being’ all relate to the idea of therapeutic use of self which can be defined as: "A therapist’s thoughtful, deliberate effort to use their self as a tool, one which embodies a self-aware therapeutic way of being in the service of clients and the client-therapist relationship" (Finlay, 2022, p. 1).Therapist unconditional positive regard: The therapist accepts the client unconditionally, without judgment, disapproval or approval. This facilitates increased self-regard in the client, as they can begin to become aware of experiences in which their view of self-worth was distorted or denied. Therapist unconditional positive regard: the therapist accepts the client unconditionally, without judgment, disapproval or approval. This facilitates increased self-regard in the client, as they can begin to become aware of experiences in which their view of self-worth was distorted by others In 1995, Clarkson wrote a book entitled The Therapeutic Relationship (revised in 2003).Clarkson talked about ‘intersubjective relationships’ (how we connect to others) and ‘intrapsychic relationships’ (how we connect to ourselves). Rory explains the five intersubjective relationships, and provides some real-life examples of these:

Therapeutic relationship - Wikipedia Therapeutic relationship - Wikipedia

Ardito, R. B., & Rabellino, D. (2011). Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome of Psychotherapy: Historical Excursus, Measurements, and Prospects for Research. Frontiers in Psychology, 2. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00270.This text provides coverage of the uses and abuses of the therapeutic relationship in counselling, psychology, psychotherapy and related fields. It provides a framework for integration, pluralism or deepening singularity with reference to five kinds of therapeutic relationship potentially available in every kind of counselling or psychodynamic work.

Petruska Clarkson - 5 Relationship Model • Counselling Tutor Petruska Clarkson - 5 Relationship Model • Counselling Tutor

As I understand it the working alliance is the basis of the client–therapist relationship that enables both the client and the therapist to work together and would include such things as the contract, the presenting issues and maybe a realisation of both people that in other circumstances they may not be kindred spirits, or even necessarily like each other. There are some synergies here with Coaching practice with a contracting process, and examination of presenting versus underlying issues; it leads to my sense that Coaching has beg, stole and borrowed from therapeutic theory! The person-to-person relationship is the core or real emotional connection – as opposed to a professional relationship with say your doctor or dentist. Client perception: that the client perceives, to at least a minimal degree, the therapist’s positive regard and empathic understanding. Integrative Psychotherapy: The Art and Science of Relationship,by Janet Moursund & Richard Erskine.One of their underlying aspects of people being relationship seeking and the idea of people having internalised relationship patterns is an interesting one. They bring into play the theories of Stern in child development in how a child creates a sense of repeated similar experiences with primary carers and how this builds a set of self beliefs and behaviours built on this; what they call the core interpersonal scheme. It also brings to mind Transactional Analysis theory on life scripts and “drivers”. They do point out clearly that whilst it is stated sequentially, that these stages often are re-cycled and overlap. In my experience in other work around behaviour change such as the transtheoretical model, this is true of robust, flexible models; they contain a sense of start, middle and end, but have circumnavigated ways through. In psychoanalysis the therapeutic relationship has been theorized to consist of three parts: the working alliance, transference/ countertransference, and the real relationship. [1] [2] [3] Evidence on each component's unique contribution to the outcome has been gathered, as well as evidence on the interaction between components. [4] In contrast to a social relationship, the focus of the therapeutic relationship is on the client's needs and goals. [5] Therapeutic Alliance / Working Alliance [ edit ] Barrett-Lennard, G. T. (1962). Dimensions of therapist response as causal factors in therapeutic change. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 76, 1-33. The concept of therapeutic relationship was described by Freud (1912) as "friendly affectionate feeling" in the form of a positive transference. However, transferences, or more correctly here, the therapist's 'counter-transferences' can also be negative. Today transference (from the client) and counter-transference (from the therapist), is understood as subconsciously associating a person in the present, with a person from a past relationship. For example, you meet a new client who reminds you of a former lover. This would be a counter-transference, in that the therapist is responding to the client with thoughts and feelings attached to a person in a past relationship. Ideally, the therapeutic relationship will start with a positive transference for the therapy to have a good chance of effecting positive therapeutic change. This is harder to define in absolute terms; it can include an expansion of consciousness, which can be spiritual or healing.