Therapeutic relationship

What are therapeutic relationships?

The therapeutic relationship refers to the relationship between a patient and a clinician. Many patients consider it to be the most important component of care, and therefore it should influence how well patients engage with services, and how well they show improvements from therapy.

What is the evidence for therapeutic relationships?

Low quality evidence is unable to determine any associations between therapeutic relationships and hospitalisation rates, symptoms or functioning. Review authors conclude that there is some, but not overwhelming evidence that good therapeutic relationships predict good outcomes, but that methodologically rigorous research is required to properly assess these associations.

September 2020

Last updated at: 4:33 am, 14th September 2020
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Fact Sheet Technical Commentary

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Title Colour Legend:
Green - Topic summary is available.
Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.