Developing Therapeutic Alliance: A Healthcare Perspective Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the therapeutic alliance in healthcare, emphasizing its significance in fostering positive patient outcomes. It defines the concept, highlighting its role in building trust, encouraging adherence to treatment plans, and facilitating recovery. The report details essential communication skills, including verbal and non-verbal techniques, active listening, and empathy. Furthermore, it explores the components of motivational interviewing and their application in clinical practice. The report also discusses practical strategies for incorporating these skills, such as therapist training, on-the-job training, and the development of supportive policies that promote cultural competence and anti-discrimination. This report leverages insights from academic literature and provides a practical guide for healthcare professionals seeking to enhance their patient interactions and improve the effectiveness of their interventions.

THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE
WITH HEALTHCARE
CONSUMER
Student Name

Importance of
therapeutic alliance
 Can be defined as the way a therapist and a
healthcare consumer connect with each other
 Helps in developing trust of the client
 Made them feel comfortable, understood and
valued (Babatunde, MacDermid & MacIntyre,
2017)
 Encourage them to follow the treatment procedure
 Motivates them to overcome barriers
 Ensure a rapid recovery
 Prevents relapse of the issue

Communication skills for developing
therapeutic alliance
 Verbal skills
 Greeting patients in an appropriate way
 Informing patient what exactly to expect during their visit
 Explaining the assessment procedure to avoid
misunderstanding afterwards (Babatunde, MacDermid &
MacIntyre, 2017)
 Using professional and respectful language
 Non verbal communication
 Ensuring that the facial expression of the therapist is
demonstrating attentiveness and concern
 Paying attention of non verbal cues obtained from the
patient

Communication skills for developing
therapeutic alliance
 Effective attending
 Therapist should show empathy towards the condition of the client
 Helps the therapist to make the client comfortable
 Demonstrate involvement of the therapists
 First step of developing trust and bond with the client (Berger,
2017)
 Active listening
 Helps the therapist to understand the challenges faced by the
client
 Helps the client to open up
 Probing and questioning
 Demonstrating empathy while asking questions
 Helping the client to remain focused on the issues
 Demonstrating cultural competence

Components of motivational
interviewing
 Expressing and showing empathy towards the clients:
develops trust and helps the client to open up
 Supporting the client while developing discrepancy:
help the client to recognize the gap between his or
her behaviour and goals
 Dealing with resistance: helps the therapist to avoid
conflicts while leading the client to select the point
they want to stick with (Crom et al., 2020).
 Supporting self efficiency: motivates the client to
achieve the goal
 Developing autonomy: helps the client to develop
responsibility to achieve the goal

How skills can be incorporated in
clinical practice?
 Educating therapists
 Enhances awareness about the importance of therapeutic alliance
 Enhances their understanding
 Provision of training
 On job training to interns
 Enhancing their communication skills
 Monitoring the progress of education and training sessions
 Through survey
 Through interview (Lawton et al., 2018)
 Developing effective polices
 For cultural competence
 Having respective attitude towards client
 Anti discrimination

References
Babatunde, F., MacDermid, J., & MacIntyre, N. (2017). Characteristics of
therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and occupational therapy
practice: a scoping review of the literature. BMC health services research, 17(1),
375.
Babatunde, F., MacDermid, J., & MacIntyre, N. (2017). Correction to:
Characteristics of therapeutic alliance in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and
occupational therapy practice: a scoping review of the literature. BMC health
services research, 17(1), 820.
Berger, T. (2017). The therapeutic alliance in internet interventions: a narrative
review and suggestions for future research. Psychotherapy research, 27(5), 511-
524.
Crom, A., Paap, D., Wijma, A., Dijkstra, P. U., & Pool, G. (2020). Between the lines:
A qualitative phenomenological analysis of the therapeutic alliance in pediatric
physical therapy. Physical & occupational therapy in pediatrics, 40(1), 1-14.
Lawton, M., Sage, K., Haddock, G., Conroy, P., & Serrant, L. (2018). Speech and
language therapists’ perspectives of therapeutic alliance construction and
maintenance in aphasia rehabilitation post‐stroke. International journal of
language & communication disorders, 53(3), 550-563.