Reader Question: How to Build the "Relational Factor" With Clients?

I’ve got another reader question for you all, and this one is fun, because it dives into the good shit of what it means to be in a therapeutic relationship with another human being (or multiple human beings, in the case of family/couple’s work or group therapy).

The question was this:

They don’t teach us how to create that relational factor (they focus on theory). Advice?

When I think of the question in another way, it’s basically asking: “How do I develop a relationship that is both therapeutic and professional? Intimate but with appropriate boundaries?”

This is where to art of therapy comes in, and the part I really love, because it’s a blend of art and science in the realm of human relationships.