ABSTRACT
In practice, the conceptions behind working at relational depth are different from classic client-centred therapy in at least as much as the emphasis is no longer on a non-directive attitude nor on facilitating emotional change but on the dialogue between client and therapist. It is ‘relationship-centred therapy’ rather than client-centred therapy because the agency of change (while still primarily the actualising tendency) is the co-created space between and within the dyad of therapist and client. Arguably, this is nothing new but this stance has previously been implicit rather than explicitly stated and explored in terms of theory and practice. Besides Mearns and Cooper, other prominent exponents of a dialogical approach to client-centred therapy include Peter Schmid (Point 31) and Barrett-Lennard (2005). A justification for focusing on and emphasising the relationship in therapy is that research evidence points to the fact that, besides whatever clients bring and/or do themselves, most of the variance in the outcome of therapy can be attributed to the quality of the relationship per se. An explanation for this may be that much emotional and mental distress is caused by the absence of or difficulty in achieving and maintaining close personal contact – that is an existential loneliness – and that relational depth achieved in therapy (or anywhere else for that matter) begins to change this. It is postulated that the way this healing happens is that the sense of connectedness resulting from
the feeling of being totally alone to a feeling of being recognised, received, perceived and understood by at least one other. This is transformative; a relief in itself but also giving rise to the hope that such deep human contact is possible outside the therapy hour and with others. Not only that, but contact at relational depth, because it is redolent with acceptance and empathic understanding, allows the client to move towards fundamental issues to do with their very existence and which may have previously been denied to awareness.
