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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This article discusses varying perspectives on the role of technique and the
relationship in therapeutic change. The
theoretical assumptions underlying the
debate are briefly described, as are the
positions of humanistic, behavioral,
psychodynamic, and experiential orientations. Theory and research that consider the integration of relationship and
technique are presented. It is then proposed that there are general principles
of therapeutic change that are facilitated by both the relationship and technique. It is suggested that these principles of change should be seen as the
active ingredients of therapy, thereby
moving the field away from a debate
about whether technique or the relationship is more important. Instead, an
emphasis on studying general principles
of change and the processes by which
technique and relationship facilitate
these principles is encouraged.
Keywords: therapeutic change, therapeutic relationship, alliance, technique
One of the most important questions that can
be asked about psychotherapy is what makes it
work; what are the key ingredients that lead to
therapeutic change? This question has long been
Marvin R. Goldfried and Joanne Davila, Department of
Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
We thank Catherine Eubanks-Carter for her comments on a
draft of this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Marvin R. Goldfried Department of Psychology,
State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York,
11794-2500. E-mail: marvin.goldfried@sunysb.edu
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
These examples illustrate the difficulty in distinguishing technique and relationship within a behavioral context, and the same point can be made
about experiential therapy. In their description of
emotion-focused therapy, Elliott et al., (2004)
describe the alliance formation as a therapeutic
task in much the same way that other experiential
techniques are therapeutic tasks (e.g., two-chair
dialogue). This view is consistent with the notion
that certain skills can be learned that can enhance
an optimal therapeutic relationship, such as accurate empathy, reflection, and self-disclosure
(Egan, 1990; Goldfried, Burckell, & EubanksCarter, 2003; Hill & OBrien, 1999).
General Principles of Changes
It would be helpful to comment on the process
of change itself as way of gaining a better appreciation of the role that the relationship and technique play in the change process itself. Although
different theoretical approaches may construe the
relationship in different ways and make use of
different techniques, and different types of clinical
problems may require different interventions, it
nonetheless is possible to delineate some general
principles that account for therapeutic change.
Elsewhere, one of us (Goldfried, 1980) has
maintained that principles of therapeutic change
can be found at a level of abstraction between the
specific interventions that are used (e.g., transfer-
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ence interpretation, relaxation training, emptychair technique) and the more general theory that
is used to explain why these specific interventions might work (e.g., psychodynamic, behavioral, gestalt). At this middle level of abstraction,
it is possible to delineate principles of change that
are common across orientations, such as: (a) the
facilitation of expectations that therapy will help;
(b) the establishment of an optimal therapeutic
alliance; (c) offering feedback that can help clients increase their awareness about what is contributing to their life problems; (d) the encouragement of corrective experiences; and (e) an
emphasis on continued reality testing. These general principles may be implemented by a variety
of different clinical procedures, which can vary
as a function of the case at hand and the therapists particular theoretical orientation.
In reviewing the process of change as it occurs
in various settings (e.g., therapy, religious healing), Frank (1961) has maintained that positive
expectations and the offering of hope that change
is possible is essential to the change process. As
we know from clinical experience as well as
research findings (Prochaska & DiClemente,
2005), even the most efficacious of interventions
can prove to be ineffective in instances where the
precontemplative client neither expects nor
wants to change. In such instances, the role of the
therapist is to instill at least a minimal level of
optimism and motivation to engage in the therapeutic process.
The facilitation of an optimal therapeutic alliance, like the presence of positive expectations
and motivation to change, is essential to the
change process. Although behavioral approaches
have historically thought of this as the nonspecifics of therapy, the work of Bordin (1979) has
specified the components of the alliance, each of
which can be measured and hopefully altered to
facilitate the change process. According to Bordin, the therapeutic alliance is composed of three
factors: (a) The presence of a personal bond between therapist and client, where the client views
the therapist as caring, understanding, and knowledgeable; (b) an agreement between client and
therapist regarding the goals of treatment (e.g.,
reduction of symptoms, improvement of relationship with significant other); and (c) an agreement
as to the means by which these goals may be
achieved (e.g., relaxation, empty-chair work).
Thus the therapeutic alliance serves as the con-
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
orientation calls this working through, a behavioral approach has referred to it as repeated
exposure.
How the Relationship and Technique
Implement Change Principles
As we hope is evident from reviewing these
change principles, they do not lend themselves to
an easy categorization as either technique-driven
or relationship-driven. Indeed, that is the point.
An understanding of therapeutic change cannot
be reduced to simple comparisons of technique
and relationship, but rather may be best understood in terms of the ways in which technique
and relationship facilitate these more general
principles. Thus the question is not if the relationship and technique produce therapeutic
change, but rather how they do.
In addressing the question of how the therapy
relationship and intervention techniques can contribute to change, it is useful to consider their
function in implementing the different principles
of change that we have outlined in the previous
section. Thus the facilitation of expectations that
therapy will help can occur within the context of
the therapy relationship by virtue of the concern
and confidence that is communicated by the therapist. It may also be facilitated by means of
things such as psychoeducational methods and
self-help books; by the successful experience associated with, for example, a relaxation induction; by helpful exploration and accurate interpretations; or by motivational interviewing
techniques (Miller & Rollnick, 2002).
The establishment of an optimal therapeutic
alliance is most certainly based on the quality of
the therapy relationship, which particularly contributes to the formation of the bond between
client and therapist. However, the bond and
client-therapist agreement on both goals and
methods are also dependent on the skillful use of
techniques such as reflection, accurate empathy,
appropriate self-disclosure, the empty-chair
method, and desensitization procedures. Moreover, the work of Safran and Muran (2000) suggests that when there is a strain in the therapeutic
alliancethe presence of which is essential for
the implementation of therapy techniquesthere
are specific techniques that must be implemented
in order to repair the alliance.
Offering clients feedback to help them increase
their awareness about what is contributing to
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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