March 2020 Clinical Supervision Topic: Therapeutic Alliance pt. 1

All,

I’m looking forward to seeing you this month as we turn the corner and head towards spring.

One of the most important things we can do in our development as clinicians is learn how to develop our therapeutic alliance with our clients. Other terms for this can be our relationship, our working alliance, our collaboration, our connection. Developing skills around fostering a therapeutic alliance is a continual process. Some days we’ll nail it, other days we’ll have lots to reflect and work on. There is no “arriving” with the therapeutic alliance. That doesn’t mean there is no reward or positive outcomes. But your growth mindset will be a huge asset here.

There are a lot of aspects that go into the alliance (we covered it in back in November too). We’ll take a few months to go over it, as there is a lot there. I want to know your questions when it comes to strengthening your relationship with clients. What do you find easy? What’s hardest? Is it easy to establish trust, but difficult to do supportive confrontation? Easy to provide empathy, but difficult to elicit feedback?

We’ll cover this article, and focus specifically on developing trust in our therapeutic alliance, so as you read the article, note the areas where trust is a factor. Come ready to discuss- it will be good!