RELATIONAL THERAPY

Are you experiencing relationship challenges at home, in your career, etc.? Do you struggle to form connections with others or have difficulty communicating? Do you feel your family dynamics lack closeness or openness? Have you experienced interpersonal trauma or issues with codependency? Have your relationships been impacted by anxiety, depression, addiction, or illness?

Relational Therapy at The Holding Space may be fit for your needs. Read below to learn more!

What is Relational Therapy?

Relational therapy (a.k.a. relational-cultural therapy) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses heavily on the therapeutic relationship, i.e., the relationship between you and your therapist. A core belief in Relational Therapy is that healthy relationships with others can not only help with, but are actually required for, psychological well-being. Thus, the therapeutic relationship is used to both identify and address the interpersonal barriers to your wellbeing, which, it is believed, will present themselves overtime in session. To identify these barriers, Relational Therapy involves exploring your past and present relationships, how they have impacted your relationship with yourself and others, and how they have been impacted by intersectional factors like class, race, gender, culture, sexuality, etc. All of this is done within a warm, empathetic, and accepting environment, which is necessary to build a secure, safe, and collaborative therapeutic relationship. This relationship, itself, is used to address your identified barriers, as it serves as a model and practice ground for healthy communication and interactions.

What does Relational Therapy look like?

At The Holding Space, we help you identify the issues that are specific to you and offer an individualized, holistic approach to address them. This starts with welcoming our clients into a

warm and accepting environment, which we believe is necessary for creating the trust and safety needed for any therapeutic work. Once these minimum requirements for the therapeutic relationship have been established, your therapist may ask questions, offer observations, share their experiences, etc. to deepen the relationship. In terms of questions, you will likely be asked about your childhood, family history and dynamics, and current relationships, as well as about your intersectional identities, like race, gender, culture, etc. In terms of observations and experiences that may be shared by your therapist, these will all be aimed at exploring how the therapeutic relationship mimics (or is different from) your patterns of relating with others, and,

ultimately, how to alter these patterns. Through warmth, empathy, and acceptance, we help individuals shift old, harmful patterns and create new, healthy ones. Even if you are already in, or plan to begin, couples therapy or individual, Relational Therapy may help to address issues specific to you.

Who does Relational Therapy work for?

Whether you’ve reached a breaking point or are simply trying to foster more connection in your life, here at The Holding Space, we believe it’s never the wrong time to attend to your mental health and wellbeing. If you are willing and ready to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your patterns of relating with others, both healthy and maladaptive, Relational therapy might be right for you.

Common topics we address through Relational therapy include:

 Anxiety

 Depression

 Trauma

 Relationship Challenges

 Family Dynamics

 Parenting

 Addiction

 Codependency

 Career

 Illness

 Gender and Sexuality

To find out if Relational Therapy might be a fit for your unique needs, contact us for a consultation today!