My Support Forums - View Single Post - The adversarial nature of the therapist/client relationship.

CantExplain · Oct 28, 2011, 04:04 AM

I found this phase in a Wikipedia article on DBT:

Quote:

Linehan and others combined a commitment to the core conditions of acceptance and change through the Hegelian principle of dialectical progress (in which thesis + antithesis → synthesis) and assembled an array of skills for emotional self-regulation drawn from Western psychological traditions (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy and an interpersonal variant, “assertiveness training”) and Eastern meditative traditions (e.g., Buddhist mindfulness meditation). Arguably her most significant contribution was to alter the adversarial nature of the therapist/client relationship in favour of an alliance based on intersubjective tough love.

Is this "adversarial nature" widely accepted, or just Linehan's opinion?

My relationship with T has certainly been adversarial at times, but I thought that was mainly due my own anger and paranoia.