No surprises here from our perspective. This article is a brief summary, rather than a more detailed/in depth exploration of the theme – worth passing on, nonetheless.
Our experience at this service daily tells us it is the relationship that is the therapy. If this works, healing and growth follow. If it doesn’t, nothing can substitute…
That is why we bring attention in our processes for incoming therapists to finding those therapists who seem most likely to be able to offer in-depth human relationship. This is often not those with the most impressive CVs – it’s more about warmth, integrity, internal locus and a deep willingness to encounter our own feeling selves and our own vulnerability.We then bring attention to supporting therapists’ own development and growth through our in-house supervision arrangements.
This take on therapy means therapists doing their own work to the (considerable, and highly counter-cultural) extent necessary to offer an effective therapeutic relationship to others – a relationship characterized by presence and the core conditions of love, empathy and authenticity.
Thank you to Brent Dean Robbins and the Society for Humanistic Psychology, Division 32 for alerting us to this article.
Palace Gate Counselling Service, Exeter
Palace Gate Counselling Service Blog 