From: Relational interventions in psychotherapy: development of a therapy process rating scale
RI Category 1: The therapist addresses interpersonal transactions with others without any linking to analogous transactions in session. | |
Therapist | However you will keep up appearances. Pretending that everything is okay with you when you meet him. |
RI Category 2: The therapist actively encourages the patient to explore thoughts and feelings about his/her relationships to other (s) including their style and behavior. | |
Patient | Our children prefer being with my wife. It often seems fine and lively when they are together, while it often becomes awkward when they are with me. |
Therapist | How do you feel about that experience? |
Patient | It is sad when I think about these situations and what I lose. |
RI Category 3: The therapist encourages the patient to discuss how other (s) might feel or think about the patient. | |
Patient | When I unexpectedly come home to visit a Sunday, my mother would say: “it’s been a long time not seeing you”. |
Therapist | Could it be an indication that she is happy? That she misses you more than that she blames you? |
Patient | Yes, I think so. She actually is quite supportive. However, I don’t really need to meet my parents as often now. It is more like I meet them when I want to. But if my relationship to my girlfriend ends, I think I would visit my parents. Then I will need some kind of comfort, as I always get there. |
RI Category 4: The therapist makes interpretive linking of dynamic elements (conflicts) in the patient’s relationships with other (s) | |
Patient | He says he is very fond of me and would really like to have a relationship with me. |
Therapist | So you are afraid of being let down, that he would lose interest in you when he gets to know you better? |
Patient | Mmm mmm (confirms) |
Therapist | This fear that people who matter to you would not bother about you. Did you always have this fear or did it come gradually? |
Patient | I think I have had this feeling for a long time, as long as I can remember, but I have never really thought about it before. |
RI Category 5: The therapist attempts to explore interpersonal repetitive patterns with important other (s) and with parental figures. | |
Therapist | You say that your boss, in this case, is breaking the regulations. Still you do not confront him, rather you feel like it’s your fault; that you have been leading him to it. You defend your boss and suppress your protest. Could it be helpful for you to see this as sort of an extension of the relationship with your father? When facing your father you did not share your opinions or views, that is, if you assumed that your father did not agree. You were afraid of being rejected and losing your father’s strong support and positive recognition. |
Patient | Yes. It is good to bring up my anger against my boss in this matter, because I put the blame on my anger easily and then I experience that he could not have acted in any other way and that it is almost my fault. It is of course not logical, but that is how I feel. Yes, it is a bit like with my father, I never really expressed my disagreement or criticism towards him. So what I feel now is discomfort, like a knot in my stomach, I want to put the whole case aside. |