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Clients’ experiences of relational depth in person‐centred counselling
Author(s) -
Knox Rosanne
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
counselling and psychotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1746-1405
pISSN - 1473-3145
DOI - 10.1080/14733140802035005
Subject(s) - feeling , openness to experience , psychology , qualitative research , therapeutic relationship , similarity (geometry) , psychotherapist , focus group , social psychology , sociology , social science , artificial intelligence , computer science , anthropology , image (mathematics)
This study explored clients’ experiences of relational depth using a qualitative methodology. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants who had been clients of predominately person‐centred counselling. Participants were asked to focus on specific moments which they had experienced as relational depth. The clients’ descriptions of those experiences showed some similarity to therapists’ descriptions, including feelings of aliveness, realness, and openness, although there were also some significant differences described. Participants experienced their therapists as being holding, accepting, and ‘really real’, and as offering something over and above what they had expected from a professional therapeutic relationship. Such moments were often seen by participants as being highly significant moments in the therapy with an enduring positive effect. The implications of these findings are discussed and areas for further research highlighted.