The “Something More” Than Working Alliance: Authentic Relational Moments

Abstract

The importance of relational processes during psychotherapy and psychoanalysis has long been emphasized. Theoretical and empirical investigations have focused mostly on episodes in which the therapeutic relationship is taken over by transference, leads to enactments, or suffers ruptures, and much less on understanding the role of positive relational episodes in the change process during psychotherapy. Episodes of the latter type, conceptualized as Authentic Relational Moments (ARMs), are core experiences in the patient’s implicit relational learning in psychotherapy. ARMs are episodes in which the connection between patient and therapist is especially strong, deep, and genuine; their three main aspects are authenticity, understanding, and witnessing.