Impasses in the Relationship Between the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner and the Consumer: A Psychodynamic Perspective

Abstract

Psychiatric rehabilitation relationships can be undermined, which can potentially damage the recovery of consumers of mental health services who are coping with a prolonged serious mental illness. This might occur when practitioners who work to advance the complex rehabilitation process and need to function in diverse areas, fail to identify and respond to the unique needs involved. This might lead to a rupture in the practitioner–consumer relationship and to an impasse in the rehabilitation. In this article, an example clarifies how such an impasse can occur in a rehabilitation relationship and demonstrates the role of the practitioner in its resolution.

Keywords::

• psychiatric rehabilitation
• recovery
• practitioners
• relationship
• impasses

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanoch Yerushalmi

Hanoch Yerushalmi, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Chair at the Department of Community Mental Health of the University of Haifa, Israel. He has been the Director of Student Counseling Center at Hebrew University, Israel, and published articles in the areas of supervision of relational psychodynamic therapy, rehabilitation and psychoanalysis and training of clinicians. Address: Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. [E-mail: [email protected]]