– Relational Therapy and Counseling Services

Last Updated on May 15, 2018 by Chris Roberts

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RELATIONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING

References “Commentary on ‘Contemporary Structural Psychoanalysis and Relational Psychoanalysis’ by Stephen A. Mitchell. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 1995, Vol. 12, No. 4, 575-582.”

Relational psychotherapy has become a more commonly known therapeutic framework in recent years, but it is actually one of the more recently developed theories.  It was created out of desire to bridge the gap between what had historically been viewed as opposing theories.  Stephen Mitchell, a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst and one of the fathers of relational theory, writes that relational based therapy was created, “…to bring together two major, and until then unintegrated, traditions: British-school object relations theories and American interpersonal psychoanalysis.” (p. 576)  He goes on to describe those two traditions:

The interpersonalists focused on actual interaction and had largely eschewed theorizing about intrapsychic structure; the object relations theorists had elaborated a structural analysis of the internal world but left real relationships (beyond earliest infancy) largely unexplored. (p. 576)

Mitchell and others wanted to create a psychotherapy framework where the client’s earliest experiences and formations were taken into account, while also acknowledging that relationships with others throughout a person’s life would also effect their well-being.  To be sure, our experiences in infancy, and largely before we can articulate our feelings, become encoded into a map whereby we can sometimes live unconsciously aware of our actions.  But those maps that we create to survive and interact with the world are not altogether frozen in time at the moment we create them.  Further, our desire to live a better life and change (even unconsciously) the patterns we have previously adhered to with unsuccessful results, indicate our ability and longing to use the current moment to create something new.

A core part of relational theory is that who we are is formed by our interactions with others.  It does not mean that we are formed solely by our interactions with others.  That would indicate that we come into this world with nothing that is unique and intrinsic to our specific self.  But it does mean that how we were related to will greatly effect how we come to know ourselves as an individual person.  The beauty of a relational therapy position is that because we are partly formed by the interactions we had with others in our past, we can create new patterns of interacting with people based on our current relationships.

Relational therapy also leaves room for the interaction between the client and therapist to inform how the therapy is progressing.  This means that the relational therapist does not sit back and describe to the client what is happening, or why it is happening.  The relational therapist is willing to have an opinion or thought on the matter, but is just as interested in how the client is experiencing the interaction.  The dialogue of how each person came to their opinion could in fact prove to be the most beneficial interaction/intervention for the client.

At Two Trees counseling in Nashville, TN, we employ several therapeutic positions in working with clients, one of which is relational therapy.  If you have questions about relational counseling or counseling in general, we would love to be of assistance.