Module 6: Consultation & Collaboration in LTC Practice
152 6.2.8 The Therapeutic Relationship
Establishing therapeutic relationships:
- Establish rapport
- Convey a non-judgmental attitude, encourage questions, listen to understand needs/concerns/priorities, and validate feelings
- Communicate in ways that convey that you care about the person
- Assess resident and family’s communication styles
- Establish priorities/wishes of resident and family
- Establish the amount of information the resident/SDM/family needs
- Establish preferred methods of information sharing with family/resident
Therapeutic relationships stages:
- First encounter – strangers meeting for the first time
- Ongoing encounters – each encounter you get to know each other more
- End of the relationship – changing roles, retirement
Qualities of good working relationships:
- Mutual respect and acceptance
- Information sharing
- Shared responsibility and decision making
- Conflict is normalized
- Effective communication
- A sense of camaraderie or belonging
- Shared responsibility
Personal accountabilities:
- Establish clear boundaries and the limitations of your role
- Good communication is the foundation of therapeutic relationships
- Be transparent and honest
- Be reliable and consistent
- Have genuine interest for the well being of others
- Reflect on situations where therapeutic relationships were challenging to establish
- Cultural competence[1][2][3][4][5]