Clients’ lived experiences of therapeutic relationship: A phenomenological study

Background: Therapeutic relationship is one of the most important aspects of psychotherapy, and quantitative methods have been the most popular approach for conducting research in this field. However, during the recent decade, qualitative research has opened new ways of understanding client-therapist relationships. Among the qualitative methods, the phenomenological perspective has turned the clients’ experience of the therapeutic relationship into an opportunity to enrich researchers' views on the therapeutic process where literature on Iranian samples suffers a noticeable gap. Aims: This study seeks the answer to the question of how the therapeutic relationship is experienced by clients. The current study aims at an immediate and phenomenological account of the therapeutic relationship essence from the client’s point of view. Methods: This study is carried out with the qualitative approach and uses descriptive phenomenology as its method. The participants were 6 former psychotherapy clients, selected purposefully from volunteers based on the predetermined inclusion criteria as representatives of the former psychotherapy clients population. The data was provided by in-depth semi-structured interviews and was analyzed using Giorgi’s four-phased procedure (2003). Results: The meaning constituents are illustrated in main 5 domains: centrality of relationship and alliance vs intervention, metaphorical understanding of therapy as a facilitator of the experience, active participation of the client in narration-experience dialogue, genuineness, empathy, and positive unconditional regard: the essence of the therapeutic relationship, importance of the person of therapist and contribution of her relational-interpersonal effects to the interactional field of therapy. Conclusion: According to the findings, the therapeutic experience can be contextualized in the mutual and responsive relationship between the client and therapist. The findings may be useful for psychotherapy supervisors and trainees as a guide in enhancing the therapeutic relationship and alliance.