Developmentally Needed Reparative Relationship with Bereaved Clients

Developmentally Needed Reparative Relationship with Bereaved Clients

Introduction

The reparative relationship involves when the client feels a bond which is nurturing emotionally between him and the therapists. This bond is said to exist when there is a sort of psychic exchange from the therapist. The bereaved client is an individual who has been dispossessed by someone or something of personal value. Social exchange theories expose the reciprocated for a successful and long-lasting relationship that exists between the client and the therapist (Fors, 2019). Therefore, the reparative relationships of psychotherapy expose the long-term relationship that develops between the therapist and bereaved clients. The purpose of this paper is to present the relationship between that result in the insight of emotions. The paper will explore the developmentally needed reparative relationship with bereaved clients. Psychotherapy helps people with psychological problems that have been developing over a long period. The treatment helps to understand one’s feelings, thoughts, and actions in a more transparent way.

The reparative relationship

The development of a reparative relationship depends on the approach employed by the therapist to the client. The therapist must first be aware of many types of grief from the client. The difference results because diverse aspects of grieve trigger different approaches from the therapist. The degree of bereaving dictates the choice of words from the therapist since various clients have different intensities of problems. The therapist should further understand how grief affects the functioning of the brain (Hall, 2017). The grief model teaches an array of steps in which each stage has its degree of effects. For instance, the language used for a bereaved client after the death of a family member is different from that of job loss. Generally, reparative relationships develop depending on the quality of services offered by the therapist to the bereaved client.

The relationship between the client and the therapist is more significant in the outcome as compared to particular schools of therapy. Some therapists go-ahead to claim that the relationship that develops is therapy, as others urge that it is the center of gravity. The cornerstone and the epicenter to everything is the theory of practicing medicine. Clarkson argues that the relationship between humans is as significant as water to the fish. Fish may not survive without water, and therefore human beings cannot survive without contact. Thus, the relationships of therapists become the medium of relationship that clients live, sustain, and even breathe. Thus, it is significant for the therapist to maintain a strong relationship with the clients for optimum outcomes.

Clarkson developed a conceptual structure containing five facets of the therapeutic relationship that she offered as a reference or sorting device. In her assertions, she developed an argument that all five links are vital for the therapeutic encounter. Just like the keys of a piano, some of the relationship encounters are in use more frequently. Therefore, some facets which nurture the relationship between the therapists and the client inculcate different frequencies of contact. Frequent interaction between the two parties is significant to ensure the success of the long-term bond of relationship. Bereave require more frequent interactions to develop a strong bond between the therapist than others. Thus, spectrums of facets are evident to enhance the reparative relationship between the client and the therapist.

Exploring the relationship

The first meeting impression is crucial to develop the relationship between the client and the therapist. Warm first welcome helps the therapist first to identify the critical problem affecting the client. The understanding of the client’s problem is significant in enhancing problem-solving measures from the therapist (Mikulak, 2018). For instance, if the relationship between the client and the therapist is positive, then the client may easily expose an array of problems to the therapist. Language use for communication to solve this problem will also be ideal for increasing the bond between the two parties. For instance, the choice of language may depend on a spectrum of issues such as culture, race, and even religion. Generally, the positive first impression improves the understanding among the parties

On the other hand, poor first impression reduces the interaction abilities and the real understanding between the client and the therapist. For instance, if the therapist harasses the client for poor dressing, then the relationship between them may be deterred. The reduction of the therapist-client link during the first impression leads to low information gathering. The client may be unwilling to disclose most of his secrets to the therapist (Nicolosi, 2016). The aftermath of poor communication between the two may impact the general relationship between the client and the therapist. Generally, a positive first impression between the client and therapist strengthens the bond among them as poor impression weakens their relationship.

Supervision

The supervision usually takes place on the therapist to ensure that they adhere to the set procedures of solving the client’s problems. The supervisor may take keen interest to assess whether the client uses Clarkson’s five facets to help in sharing language, which discusses the client’s experience. Further, the supervisor must seek to determine that the therapist follows the given schedule. Supervision of the therapist plays a central role in deciding whether the therapist has fully understood the cause of the bereaved. The understanding of the reason behind the bereaved is significant to help to steer the solution to the client. Generally, the supervision of the therapist is a significant step to assess whether the therapists employ common tactics and procedures for success.

Supervision plays another role apart from just evaluation to submission of reports from the therapist. At this point, the therapist may report to the supervisor on the challenges and technicalities encountered in the field. The introduction of news is significant since the supervisor can apply the report records to make decisions and judgments regarding the therapist (Pighi et al., 2016). The guidance from the supervisor during the submission improves the relationships between the therapists and the client. The supervisor can guide the therapist on language use during counseling to ensure effectiveness. Generally, supervision plays the central role of guiding and improving relationships between the therapist and client.

Countertransference relationship

Countertransference is the redirection of the psychotherapist’s relationship with the client. At this point, the therapist may apply the feelings gained through their encounter with the client for oneself. The link of countertransference inculcates the client’s understanding of the opinions of the bereaved client and thus redirecting the feelings. The redirection of the emotions is apparent when the therapist feels sorry for the client. For instance, if the client endures difficulties to talk regarding the bereaved case, the therapist may redirect the feelings from the client to oneself. This act is to help the patients work through their past traumatic events about patients. For instance, a therapist may call a child who has been severely mistreated by his parent’s “son” to help him recover from the trauma of abuse. Generally, the countertransference relationship plays a central role in ensuring recovery from a traumatic event on the client.

Transference is further evident when the therapist applies to solve the client’s primary problem directly. For instance, able therapists may choose to offer employment to a bereaved client of job loss. This relation happens when the therapists endure strong feelings of anger from the client. These feelings of anger are helpful to the client since the therapist may not apply it to an abusive setting. The countertransference is significant in developing the bond between the bereaved clients and the therapist. The bereave it is because the therapist endures the pain on the client. It is evident that for the therapist to befriend the client, he must understand the feelings of the client. Therefore, this step of countertransference helps to increase the bond of the relationship between the two parties.

The Erskine’s relational depth

Relationship depth is evident when the therapist sees moments of absolute trust from the client. Erskine urges that relational depth helps the therapist to respond to the client’s unmet archaic needs. The reparative relationship process develops after the first session of the client and therapist encounter. The therapist counsels the client through the use of past information, the present, and future client information. At this point, the therapist clearly understands the client and the impact of the environment on behavior (Ramai et al., 2018). Effective counseling is evident at this time since the therapist understands a wide range of information regarding the client. The effectiveness of the long-lasting relationship between the parties depends on the integration of the past, present, and future. This level takes place when the therapist has a multi-dimensional and integrative framework regarding the client. The interactions build an alliance that could be stronger by exploring the clients to deal with distress. Discussion regarding the strengthening of the deal with the client makes connections with the bereaved client. Generally, Erskine’s relationship depth emerges from the information acquired from the first session.

Some incidences may force the therapist to use a contrary language to eliminate unhelpful beliefs and internal conflicts. For instance, a statement like “am not your parent” from a therapist makes the therapist eliminate beliefs that the client may require a favor. Thus, this language use during counseling is significant to help any idea that may be unhelpful to the client. The aftermath of fair treatment and the creation of a nurturing environment is the feeling of a strong bond of support from the client. In this case, the client develops a spiritual psychic in exchange with the therapist. This bond between the client and the therapist is apparent and during the healing process of the bereaved client. Therefore, the reparative relationship develops in the bereaved clients after a long-term relationship between the client and the therapist.

Clarkson’s five relationship model of counseling

The first model of Clarkson argues that the working alliance pertains to the contract that is initially drawn up and agreed upon. The bereaved clients are required, therefore, to decide on the deal based on terms and conditions and payment terms. The frequency of therapy sessions, its purpose, and goals are also essential to enhance a good relationship between the two parties. Therefore, terms and conditions of therapy are significant to ensure the development of a reparative relationship. Generally, the first of Clarkson’s model insists on the terms and conditions, payment procedure, and how the impact relations between the parties.

The second models urge the transferential relationship that develops between the client and therapist when no other party is involved. At this point, Clarkson insists on the idea of confidentiality between the therapist and the bereaved client. Most clients require high-level secrecy, and their personal information should not be in place to family members. The therapist should, therefore, be secretive on the contents of the meeting to make the client develop a reparative relationship. Generally, the confidentiality of the meeting between the therapist and the client is crucial to boost relation between them.

On the third model, Clarkson urges that reparative relationship in one in which the client feels an emotionally nurturing bond between himself and the therapist. For instance, the client can feel the care and love of the therapist (Van, Nel, & Govender, 2017). This bond results from frequent interaction, which makes the client feel the healing and comfort of the therapist. Based on the aftermath of a reparative relationship, it is also known as re-parenting. This parental is because the clients feel that love and care from the “parent.” The process helps to heal the emotional torture of the client and reduce traumas on the bereaved. Therefore, the process of re-parenting plays a central role in improving the client emotionally.

The real person-to-person relationship is when the therapist-client becomes too strong for the client to hide secrets from the therapist. At this level, the client feels confident and secures enough being with the therapist. The earlier meetings lead to the development of a warm and supportive environment between the therapist and the client.

The transpersonal relationship relates to spirituality, faith, love, values, and meaning. This type of relationship develops when there is an exchange of religious beliefs between the therapist and the client. Moments of truth and realization take a course leading to diversification of information from the client to the therapist. Thus, frequent exchange of information between the client and the therapist leads to an exchange of information past that of healing.

Conclusion

Bereaved clients require optimum treatment from the therapists to develop a supportive environment between them. Clarkson’s five relationship model explores how to develop a warm and supportive atmosphere between the parties. Working as an alliance extends a contract that the two parties need to follow to ensure success. Therefore, the client and therapist should adhere to the terms to enhance the warm environment between them. Bereaved clients have different intensities of the cause of bereavement (Ziegler, 2017). The therapist is required to understand the purpose of bereaving to determine the most preferred language in the context. Proper language use will foster and strengthen the bond between them into reparative. Supervision of the client further plays a role in ensuring that the therapist follows the required procedure for healing the client. The supervisor has the task of evaluating the therapist and enlightening him on what to do. Clarkson explores that reparative relationship develops when there is a mutual understanding between the parties to a point where the client may not hide information. The openness from the client is significant to heal the bereaved client and develop a long-lasting relationship. Generally, a reparative relationship depends on a wide range of procedures and understanding between the parties.

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