| Abstract [eng] |
Psychotherapeutic relationship is one of the most important factors in the assessment of psychotherapy effectiveness, irrespective of different therapeutic approaches and paradigms. Current evidence demonstrates that the assessment of the psychotherapeutic relationship from clients’ perspective is the best predictor of therapeutic outcomes. However, there is still a lack of research that examines the psychotherapeutic relationship from the clients’ perspective as a dynamic phenomenon while maintaining its complexity and context. The aim of this paper is to reveal how adult clients understand and emotionally experience the psychotherapeutic relationship in psychodynamic psychotherapy. The participants were 6 women and 4 men (aged 22 - 48 years) attending (or having attended) face-to-face or hybrid psychodynamic psychotherapy for at least 1 year. Data collected through semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that the roles of the psychotherapist and the client in the psychotherapeutic relationship, the dynamics involved between the two, as well as aspects of the therapeutic process have an impact on the relationship as a whole. The clients’ processes in the psychotherapeutic relationship such as talking it out and feeling it out, learning, gaining new knowledge and experience, understanding and experiencing the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship and questioning the relationship were also revealed. Different ways of seeing the psychotherapist from the clients' perspective (psychotherapist as object (tool), person, safe zone / pillar, expert / authority / professional, mother) and different types of experience of the relationship (formal (professional) relationship, no relationship or cold relationship, connection or close relationship, dependent relationship) are also discussed. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the psychotherapeutic relationship in the scientific literature and may be useful for therapists practicing psychodynamic psychotherapy. |
