Why is the Relationship Important?

As a health practitioner, you will have the unique opportunity to learn about the life of your client, specifically what brings them to you for help. There have been studies that have shown that, excluding diverse personal factors, the number one predictor of positive clinical outcomes in therapeutic work is the relationship with the practitioner (Asay and Lambert, 1999 ).

You can learn many interventions and methods that will objectively help your client, but a part of being a health practitioner will be attending to the connection you have with your client and enhance a level of trust so that they can be vulnerable and take the risks that your interventions will entail. Having safety and trust in the healing relationship is important for the client to feel like they are heard and understood, as well as important for the safety of their recovery, e.g., if a client doesn’t trust you to share an important piece of information in their recovery, this could lead to further injury.

Research has shown that therapeutic alliance is essential in the recovery of the client as this builds on their strengths and motivations (Monaco et al., 2022). Also, if the practitioner is struggling with something preventing them from fully attending to their client, this could lead to safety implications and poor outcomes for the client. Therefore, this module is as much reflecting on the client relationship as on yourself and anything that comes up for you as you approach placement.

ACTIVITY: REFLECTION ON RELATIONSHIPS

Think of a friendship or close person in your life that you have had a strong connection with. What characteristics were needed to help build this connection? i.e., trust, open communication. How were these characteristics developed? i.e., how did you develop trust?