Reparative Relationship

The next form is the reparative/developmentally needed relationship in Clarkson’s Framework. When the client’s original parenting was not appropriate, e.g. overprotective or abusive, as a result the client can be in distress. The counsellor should be willing to demonstrate what the client’s fantasy needs, e.g. a parent. 

By the end of therapy the client will internalise this emotional regulation by overriding the old harmful or damaging ways of relating to self. The therapist can provide the nurturing, praise and affirmation the client may have never had.

 

 

 

 

 

According to Clarkson this type of relationship is “an intentional provision by the therapist of a corrective, reparative or replenishing relationship or action where the original parenting was deficient, abusive or overprotective.” To provide a reparative relationship it is beneficial to know what the injury, or trauma was or what the developmental deficiency was. The arrested development is the point where the client  has some stuckness. After establishing the working alliance and potentially working through transference the therapist is able to offer and show a different kind of relationship, that of a beneficent parental figure, showing support, encouragement and unconditional positive regard. The counsellor should be aware of their own upbringing and have worked through their own issues in order to provide an unbiased, corrective relationship and to be able to fully focus on the client’s agenda.

Through the reparative/developmentally needed relationship the counsellor can facilitate client’s exploration of their patterns of behaviour, working through that together, helping them form new patterns and then carrying on with those new healthier behaviour. Naturally, learning new patterns to embed them into the client’s life can be a lengthy process. By providing a safe therapeutic space for this work to happen, using the person centred approach and the psychodynamic model integratively, clients can make beneficial changes. This way they can internalise the counsellor and develop an inner therapist  can have a huge, long term impact on their lives.

Clients might regress to a previous developmental stage in therapy. Clarkson quoted Guntrip: “regression is a flight backwards in the search of security and a chance of a new start.” What the client needed back then but was missing from the parenting (developmental deficit) can be provided by the counsellor in the here and now. The counsellor should consider the nature, severity and duration of the deficit which has led to the deformation, deprivation or distortion.

This theory can be linked to Erikson’s psychosocial developmental stages. It is important  to have a thorough knowledge of those stages in order to enable counsellors to identify the stages and the deficit related to that specific stage. 

According to Clarkson this reparative relationship  can happen in a group therapy setting too, where clients can re-experience an alternative family dynamic.

Bibliography:

 

Petruska Clarkson, The Therapeutic Relationship, Wiley, 2003