Abstract
In recent decades there has been a burgeoning discourse both in psychoanalysis and within the humanistic psychotherapies about the nature of change, and the pivotal role that the therapeutic relationship plays within this process. Many readers may identify with the term ‘relational therapist’, and as a result this article explores whether our commitment to, and perhaps over-preoccupation with, relationality is unintentionally obscuring the part that the client's inherent nature plays in the psychotherapeutic process of change. From an integrative perspective I am curious about the integrative links between the humanistic notions about the ontological nature of change, such as the actualizing tendency, the paradoxical nature of change and physis, and the Jungian concept of enantiodromia. I will argue that these understandings, borne out of phenomenological experience, attest to an inner dynamic within the client or patient that can propel the individual towards change, growth and healing: sometimes as a result of the intricate interplay between the client's innate capacity for healing and the uniquely formed, co-created therapeutic relationship; and sometimes as a result of the client's essence that can afford unprecedented healing, regardless of the therapeutic relationship at hand.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Steven B. Smith, MSc, MA, is a UKCP-registered integrative psychotherapist. Since 2002 he has been a Primary Tutor/Senior Lecturer with the Metanoia Institute, Ealing, London. He is a humanistic, integrative psychotherapist and a continuing student of Jung and the post-Jungians, having completed his Masters with the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at Essex University in 2008. He is a visiting trainer for other departments and institutes, and has a private clinical and supervisory practice in Hammersmith, London.
Notes
1. Text references are to the Collected Works (CW) and by volume and paragraph, edited by H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, and W. McGuire (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).