The role of life purpose in the therapeutic relationship
1 Ventura County Behavioral Health, Thousand Oaks, California, United States.
2 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, United States.
3 David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, United States.
4 California State University Depart. of Social Work, Northridge, California, United States.
Research Article
International Journal of Life Science Research Archive, 2024, 06(01), 028–040.
Article DOI: 10.53771/ijlsra.2024.6.1.0110
Publication history:
Received on 28 November 2023; revised on 06 January 2024; accepted on 08 January 2024
Abstract:
Objective: Positive psychological interventions have proven to help clients make life plans that give them a sense of fulfillment and importance. Such interventions help clients with goals, essential life factors, their sense of purpose or belonging, and their belief that life is worth living. Specifically, this research explored how mental health professionals addressing the topic of life purpose with those seeking treatment may affect a therapeutic relationship.
Methods: Six individual interviews were conducted with mental health clinicians to investigate patterns involving a clients’ life purpose and therapy. Clinicians discussed in the interviews how a client's life purpose, transcendence of a higher power, external factors and interpretation of their sense of happiness affect the therapeutic relationship and mental health outcomes.
Results: The study found that when the therapist consistently examined those topics with the client, it affected the therapeutic relationship by focusing the treatment plan, creating a smoother therapy process, providing motivation for therapy, and more effective treatment.
Conclusion: The focused approach on the importance of a client's life purpose in the scope of the therapeutic relationship, provided psychological fulfillment to the client and gave the therapist a better understanding of the client.
Keywords:
Life Purpose; Meaning; Therapeutic Relationship; Outcome; Positive Psychology
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Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0