Therapist-client relationship isn’t just business. It’s deeper than that

Have you ever wondered what the therapist-client relationship is like?

Whether you are new or a veteran of counseling, the therapist-client relationship can be mysterious and hard to describe.

Why the therapist-client relationship is important?

The therapist-client relationship is the single predictor of your psycho-therapy success.

What makes the therapist-client relationship unique?

Every therapist-client relationship is different. The therapist-client relationship is multi-faceted and five specific facets are seen in most counseling relationships.

The first facet is about agreeing on treatment goals, treatment methods, and sharing expectations. It’s all about business, agreeing on the session rate, and how often you will see each other. This is also called the working alliance. 

The second facet of the therapist-client relationship is the therapist and client transferring feelings of other relationships onto each other. This is not unique to counseling relationships. We transfer our feelings about older relationships to new ones all the time. This is very human. This is also called the transference-countertransference relationship.

The therapist-client relationship is a two-way street

Beyond business, the therapist-client relationship is a personal human bond. We often forget that behind the diagnosis and the degree, two human beings are developing a human bond. This is the third facet of the therapist-client relationship. For therapists, this human bond can stay with them for many years.

The therapist-client relationship is more than just business

There is another aspect of the therapist-client relationship that we more often see with teacher-student or coach-student relationships. This is the fourth aspect of the relationship. It is called the reparative relationship. This is when the relationship helps us repair what we might have needed from another relationship. For some students, teachers and coaches are parenting figures beyond their role of instructing and teaching.

The last and fifth facet of the therapist-client relationship is the transpersonal relationship. Like the human bond, this transpersonal aspect can be experienced in other relationships outside of the counseling office. This transpersonal bond can be described as a spiritual connection. This is another very human phenomenon. Sometimes we meet people we feel deeply connected to and we can’t explain why. 

To wrap things up

Remember, each of these aspects of the therapist-client relationship is unique. Therapists don’t experience all these aspects the same way with every client. And the therapist-client relationship you create with your therapist evolves over time. Below is a therapist-client “cheat sheet”. Download it for free!  Download it and take it with you at your next session.

This is an awesome tool to open dialogue and give feedback. 

If you are a therapist who wants clinical supervision on therapeutic relationship. Reach out!