Therapeutic Alliance Research Paper

Total Length: 878 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

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clinician-client relationship is not totally critical to the outcome of therapy. Additionally, we will examine the position in detail, as well as the supporting rationale. Finally, the author will show that under the right conditions, clinicians should abandon what have been traditionally thought of as very robust techniques/approaches and "wing it" in their client contacts. This is based upon the patient's welfare. If the clinician thinks that innovative or new methodology is justified to help a client, then others should support their decision about how they decide to treat their patients.

This author maintains that the clinician-client relationship is not necessarily critical to the outcome of therapy. This can be seen in two sources which we will examine that note the success of online therapy without the need for a positive clinician-client relationship. It is amazing that many people not only can relate to someone in a cyber relationship, but may prefer it to a human companionship type of situation. In an article in the journal of Cyberpsychology & Behavior, we find that patients thrived clinician in a cyber type of relationship. While the regular clinician may even use the tools of the cyber clinician for the initial referral (including video-conferencing, phone, e-mail and instant messaging or chat), this work better for the cyber clinician to consummate a permanent relationship.
Indeed, clients may even prefer a text-only setting for their first contact.

This is because they may feel more comfortable in such a setting and are more able to express themselves, or that they may wish to maintain anonymity. Obviously, those with more computer skills may show more of an inclination to this type of therapy, including the different types of options such as emails, online chats, or instant messaging (Suler, 2001, 675-676). While more study is necessary, it is certain that many of the clients in the study not only functioned with a direct client-clinician relationship, but actually thrived without it due to the anonymity offered by the cyber relationship.

The above approach was also found in a thesis presented to the Utah State University in 2008 by Jennifer A Morrow. In her study, seventeen women that she studied thrived in technologically assisted intervention study (TAI) TAI is a type of teletherapy done that was delivered through online, live video conferencing. The client satisfaction was examined by Morrow at three different time points, indlucing post therapy, 3-months post therapy and additionally 6-months post therapy.

The clients received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that was targeted at reducing their symptoms of mild to moderately severe depression. The study found that these women experienced a consistently high level of….....

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