The importance of the bond in Psychotherapy: how can it be worked on?

Human ties have a notable influence on people's mental health. Harmony in relationships between people favors the development of cognitive structures that They allow us to better regulate stress, as well as deal with high-tension situations. emotional. Lack of harmony will cause discomfort, precariousness and alteration in the development of the relationship. A good patient/client - therapist relationship is essential in psychotherapy.

In psychotherapy, this relational experience is called the therapeutic bond and it contains some factors that I will describe later. At this point, the most important thing is to emphasize that the study of non-specific or common factors to any orientation psychotherapeutics, consider the client/patient-therapist bond as one (if not the most) of the factors responsible for change in psychotherapy.

In fact, the phenomenon of the therapeutic relationship must be understood as the central axis of the entire therapeutic process. We can find this evidence in the research of (Safran & Muran, 2000 or Krause, 2005).

Such is the responsibility of developing this bond that, its absence or neglect, is leaving the result of the therapeutic process to chance..

Keys to an adequate therapeutic bond: guide for patients and professionals

We have been basing psychotherapy on its practice for around 30 years based on results and solid evidence, with scientific rigor of its therapeutic success. The contribution of the relationship to this fact is fundamental. If psychotherapists agree on something, it is that this therapeutic relationship is the cornerstone of all psychotherapy.

That this client/patient-therapist relationship is the guiding thread of the entire therapeutic process must, Firstly, because the bond develops in a permissive, non-critical, non-punitive context, comprehensive. A lived space in which the problems that, for someone like you, can decide to seek help in applied psychology are raised and manifested experientially.

A first key in the right direction for the interests of our patients, and so that the client becomes aware of the inevitable commitment with himself, with himself, it has to do with persuasion. Yes, persuasion, or basis of therapeutic relationships in applied psychotherapies.

Persuading consists of the patient achieving objectives in the direction of what is important or improves her life and reduces psychological conflicts. To do this, the therapist is responsible for promoting adequate therapeutic adherence or the degree to which a person's behavior favors the elements so that the changes that favor it are carried out: taking medication, performing tasks between sessions, or the actions necessary to motivate the patient. customer.

A patient who, in turn, has to work on her competence, that is, being able to do what he has to do. Commit to this endeavor. Persuade yourself based on your own commitment to the relationship of trust with the psychotherapist and to the psychotherapeutic ritual or procedure, and the agreements established between the two.

Another key, or several keys, is the factors common to all psychotherapeutic intervention, taking into account, as We have been telling you so far that the therapeutic bond, the patient/client-therapist relationship, is the most common of all factors. common. I already pointed out above, the trauma, the warp of the therapeutic relationship, must know how to develop throughout the process the following three factors: therapeutic alliance, real relationship and transfer.

The benefits of an alliance in psychotherapy

The therapeutic alliance, within the framework of the therapeutic relationship, is the exchange and explicit establishment of objectives by the patient and the therapist., as well as mutual consent on what is intended to be achieved with the psychotherapeutic intervention, as well as reaching an operational agreement of the necessary actions and tasks, and the responsibility for carrying them out, to achieve those objectives that improve the life of the customer.

Despite what I just told you, the therapeutic alliance is more than a work relationship, it requires is effective in addressing the client's needs for change and improvement, encompassing personal ties positive. That is, there is a rapport of aspects such as empathy, mutual trust and unconditional acceptance (respect for the person and their ideas even if they are not shared).

With the next factor, that of real relationships, it happens that we doubt whether to place it before or after the therapeutic alliance, although Personally, I prefer to place it before because the therapeutic alliance is a fact that not only facilitates improvement, but precedes it as well. healing process. Real relationships respond to the establishment of behaviors of openness and honesty with which one participates in this relationship..

Patients often give more importance to a more personalized relationship, even more so than that established in the therapeutic alliance. A relationship, if you prefer, less technical and subject to commitments. We must attend to the needs for authenticity, understanding and compassion because they will also provide benefits for psychotherapy and, consequently, for the goals of our patients.

Finally, transference, understood as a more general phenomenon than Freudian, that is, it occurs in any psychotherapy, from the psychoanalysis to radical behaviorism, because transference is something that occurs in any human relationship that has a certain intensity and relevance; It has happened to almost everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, that relationships from the past influence their present. In fact, many of the people who go to see a psychologist express, precisely, problems with their past and with the relationships they had in it..

If you have come this far, perhaps it is because you have been interested in this article, which encourages me to continue with the work of disseminating psychology and psychotherapy. If it sounds good to you, I invite you to share it. Thank you.