Therapists’ self-reported chronic strategies of disconnection in everyday life and in counselling and psychotherapy: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore how therapists believe they may relationally disconnect from other people and their clients, with an overall objective of developing methods for enhancing relational depth in counselling and psychotherapy. Participants were 168 trainee and practicing therapists, who listed their chronic strategies of disconnections (CSoDs) in everyday relationships, and then rated the presence of these CSoDs in their therapeutic work. Thirty-nine categories of self-reported everyday CSoDs emerged, organised into seven domains. Most prevalent were behavioural, passive and intrapsychic strategies. Over half of the CSoDs were rated as being present in therapy to a minimal extent, most commonly passive CSoDs, disingenuous CSoDs and humour. Male therapists, and trainee therapists, were most likely to identify their CSoDs as present in therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Therapeutic relationship
• counselling training
• relational depth
• countertransference
• strategies of disconnection

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the workshop participants and to Mark Elliott.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mick Cooper is a Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton and a chartered counselling psychologist. Mick is author and editor of a range of texts on person-centred, existential and relational approaches to therapy, including Existential Therapies (Sage, 2003), Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2005, with Dave Mearns — 2nd edition published 2017), and Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2011, with John McLeod). Mick has also led a range of research studies exploring the process and outcomes of humanistic counselling with young people. Mick’s latest book is Existential psychotherapy and counselling: Contributions to a pluralistic practice (Sage, 2015).

Rosanne Knox is a manager in a UK children’s charity; a lecturer at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London; and a BACP accredited therapist. Rosanne’s doctoral research, undertaken at the University of Strathclyde, involved explorations of the therapeutic relationship from the perspective of clients. Publications include a range of research papers on clients’ experiences of relational depth. Rosanne was a co-editor of Relational Depth: New Perspectives and Developments (Palgrave, 2013), author of The Therapeutic Relationship in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2015, with Mick Cooper), and contributed to the Tribes of the Person-Centred Nation (2nd ed., PCCS Books, ed. P. Sanders, 2012).