THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP - WHAT INFLUENCES IT AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE ON THE PSYCHOTHERAPY PROCESS?

This article presents the review of results of psychotherapy researches presented in the Psychotherapy Research in years 2004-2012. The main point of interest was a common factor of many psychotherapeutic schools - the therapeutic relationship. Collected information were divided into three categories. The first one consist of variables which can be used to describe the relationship, specified with use of tools created for their measurement. Most of them were easy to measure, however, some concerned abstract concepts. The second category consists of factors which affect the relationship. Those were classified within 4 categories: influence of a patient, his features and experience, also characteristics of a therapist and his actions. The last category was on the association between the relationship variables and variables of a therapeutic process. Those within the second category described in this article, were studied the most. Least information was provided about the third category. It clearly shows that the matter of the psychotherapeutic relationship is commonly examined by many researchers, nevertheless it still leaves place for future studies.