Tuesday, May 5, 2015

What is most beneficial: The Therapeutic Alliance or the treatment itself?

 Therapy for Life

Research carried out by the University of Manchester and the University of Liverpool examined the psychological treatment of more than 300 people suffering from emotional disorders.
“A quality level of therapeutic alliance had a beneficial impact on wellbeing, but where the relationship was poor, the treatment could actually be damaging.”

It turns out that the most important part of therapy is the rapport between client and counsellor.

The quality in the treatment from the counsellor had by far the biggest positive effect on the client’s improvement over any Cognitive Behavioural or Transactional Analysis techniques.
“all types of psychotherapy, even though often appearing to be very different from each other, are equally beneficial to patients.”  Says Lucy Goldsmith, a PhD candidate from The University of Manchester’s Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health.
“Groups who received a psychosocial treatment fared much better than those offered only medication and usual care.”
(L. P. Goldsmith et al., 2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003329171500032X

A good therapeutic relationship relies on trust, respect and honesty, along with a good empathic ability from the therapist. The environment must feel safe and non judgmental for success in achieving the client’s goals.

If you or someone you know are in need of some counselling in or around the Southend-on-Sea area, don’t hesitate to contact me by clicking here
Take care, Sam

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