Establishing and Maintaining a Therapeutic Relationship with Lorraine

This document discusses the methods of establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship with Lorraine, a client suffering from mental health issues. It also covers measures for promoting mental health and recovery. The importance of rapport, non-verbal communication, genuineness, and non-judgmental attitude in building a therapeutic relationship is highlighted. Additionally, the document provides tips for promoting mental health, such as valuing oneself, surrounding oneself with positive people, avoiding drugs and alcohol, and setting realistic goals.

Assignment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1) How would you establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship with Lorraine..................3
2) How would you promote mental health and recovery with Lorraine?...................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Therapeutic relationship is basically a relationship between a therapist and client who is
receiving the therapy. It is an important relationship which needs to be developed as it is the first
setting where an individual who is receiving the treatment shares beliefs, thoughts and emotions
in context of the issues (Burnham, 2018). All therapists are required to show genuineness and
empathy while delivering the service. It is a method in which client and therapist indulge with
each other and make changes in the life of client. In this study, methods of establishing and
maintaining therapeutic relationship is going to be discuss. Furthermore, measures for promoting
mental health will be cover.
MAIN BODY
1) How would you establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship with Lorraine.
Therapeutic relationship is the relationship between client and the counsellor in therapy
sessions. There is a need to build an effective relationship with the client in order to draw out the
best outcomes of the therapy. It has an ability of transforming experience of the individual. In the
given case where Lorraine is suffering form mental disorder, there is a need to build a positive
working alliance with her in order to bring some positivity in her life. As she is facing large
number of problems mentally, a mandatory psychotherapy session is must that should be given
to her (Ersser, 2019). Crisis team which consist of individuals who support people who are going
through some serious mental illness due to self harm, psychosis and suicidal attempts. Thus,
being in such situations, Lorraine also need such assistance. However, for establishing a
therapeutic relationship with the patient, some of the essential steps are need to be consider
which are discussed here.
Develop rapport: In order to build a therapeutic relationship with the client, the
counsellor need to build some empathy so that Lorraine can expresses her feelings openly and
counsellor must put himself in the position of the client in order to bring out the best results.
Using Non verbal: For building a therapeutic relationship, the counsellor must use some
body language and must express that full support is there with the patient and try to motivate her.
Be genuine: The counsellor must be genuine with the Lorraine. Small talks must be there
which allows the therapist to be genuine during the whole conversation. It will help to establish a
healthy relationship with the client.

Do not judge the client: It can negatively impact on the whole therapy session if the
counsellor starts to judge the client. The therapist must avoid any sort of advices or
recommendations that feel uncomfortable to the client (Tangen and Borders, 2016). For instance,
there must be proper avoidance of giving any sort of religious or medical advices. In case of
Lorraine, who is facing a mode of depression and anxiety, such kind of gestures must be strictly
prohibited as it may result in negative outcomes of the therapy.
Thus, such sort of implementations can help Lorraine to bring some improvement and
quality in her life.
2) How would you promote mental health and recovery with Lorraine?
Mental health is the capability of an individual to face their life challenges and to evolve
some measures which can be used to overcome such challenges. Mentally depressed or
challenged people tends to become stressful and can not cope up with the issues prevailing in
their life. There are few ways which can be used to promote the mental health issue and and to
make such person stable so that they can effectively take decisions and be independent in their
life. Ways which can be used to promote mental health are discussed below.
Value yourself: An individual should treat themselves with proper dignity and respect,
they should not let some other people take advantage. Lorraine should not give right to very boy
to hurt the sentiments and feelings of the girl, such practice will make an individual strong and
confident (Flaskas and et.al., 2018). Self criticism must be avoided in any case, suicidal thoughts
should not even come slightest to the mind because such thinking make a person weak and lose
their self worth.
Surround with good people: The mental health patient should get surrounded by
positive people so as to make their life healthier and less intoxicated. Lorraine should rejoin the
Crisis team because engaging in such team render a chance in making good friends and getting
motivated with their presence. They should seek assistance from parents as well and must talk
about their issues with them. The girl should talk to their parents about how her uncle used to
treat her so as to make her mentally stable.
Avoid drugs and alcohol: The habit of taking drugs and drinking alcohol make the
people more mentally unstable, thus they should avoid the habit and must get indulge into such
practices like exercising and listening music which make them happy from mind and soul. The
habit of Lorraine of taking drugs made her post traumas more exaggerated and the girl became

suicidal and thus attempted to take life many times. Thereby, the usage of drugs and alcohol
must be avoided.
Set realistic goals: By making life goals and aims, an individual can become more
confident and positive towards their career and life (Mason, 2018). They should make academic
or personal goals to enhance their self worth. Lorraine should get employed and start working
somewhere so as to make her involved in the work and they does not get time to get involve in
the post traumas and past pain.
By achieving the above functions Lorraine can get recovered from the mental health
problem and can cope up with the suicidal thoughts.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that therapeutic relationship is the most
essential part of a therapy. It help both client and the therapist to engage in the therapy in order to
bring out the best possible outcomes. It bring the required changes in life of the individuals who
are going through some mental trauma. Mental health promotion is must so that individuals can
visor such counsellors instead of getting more depressed.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Burnham, J., 2018. Relational reflexivity: a tool for socially constructing therapeutic
relationships. In The Space Between. (pp. 1-17). Routledge.
Ersser, S.J., 2019. Nursing as a therapeutic activity: An ethnography. Routledge.
Flaskas, C., and et.al., 2018. The space between: Experience, context, and process in the
therapeutic relationship. Routledge.
Mason, B., 2018. Relational risk-taking and the therapeutic relationship. In The Space Between.
(pp. 157-170). Routledge.
Tangen, J.L. and Borders, D., 2016. The supervisory relationship: A conceptual and
psychometric review of measures. Counselor Education and Supervision. 55(3). pp.159-
181.