Therapeutic relationship or alliance is a special relationship between the therapist and the client.

It has following features:

• It is trusting and confiding relationship.

• The therapist provides unconditional positive regard to the client.

• This relationship develops in a permissive environment.

• The relationship is based on empathy.

• The relationship maintains strict confidentiality of the disclosures, feelings and thoughts of the client.

• The relationship maintains warmth, trust and confidence towards each other.

• It is purely a professional relationship.

Psychodynamic Therapy:

• According to Psychodynamic therapy cause of problem is intrapsychic conflicts.

• Belief in unconscious which is reservoir of instinctive and animal drives.

• Past, i.e., psychosexual development is important in personality development/ disorder.

• Transference is actively encouraged.

Logo Therapy:

• Cause of problems is not getting meaning of ones life and existence.

• Belief in spiritual unconscious which is full of positive emotions and aesthetic values.

• Present is important for personality development/disorder.

• Transference is actively discouraged.

Psychodynamic therapy assumes that the therapist understands the intrapsychic conflicts of the client better because of his training and maturity. He interprets the thoughts and feelings of the client and provides insight of the same to the client. Behaviour therapy assumes that the therapist is capable of finding out the correct behaviour and thought patterns, which would be adaptive for the client.

Existential and humanistic therapy assumes that therapist simply listens and develops a relationship with the client in which the client himself resolves his problems.

The concept unconditional positive regard was given by Carl Rogers.

• It is an attitude of acceptance and respect on the part of an observer, no matter what the other person says or does.

• The therapist provides acceptance and warmth to the client.

• He is non-judgmental.

• The therapist continues to show positive feelings towards the client even if he is rude or confides all the 'wrong' things that he may have done or thought about.

• Empathy is an intellectual understanding of another person’s situation.

• Empathy is present when one is able to understand the plight of another person and feel like other person.

• Empathy means understanding things from the other person's perspective, i.e., putting oneself in the other person's shoes.

• Empathy enriches the therapeutic relationship and develops a healing relationship.

• It is a cognitive process.

Sympathy is different from empathy.

• It is compassion and pity towards the suffering of another but not being able to feel like the other person.

• It is an affective process.