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Negative Relating and Psychotherapy

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Relating Theory – Clinical and Forensic Applications

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Abstract

Ideally a person would always relate positively. People relate negatively because they have not acquired the capability to relate positively. Psychotherapy patients consistently obtain high scores on the Person’s Relating to Others Questionnaire (PROQ3; Birtchnell, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 20(1), 36–48, 2013), which is a measure of negative relating. People seek psychotherapy not because they consider themselves to relate negatively to people, but because they experience themselves as being excessively anxious or depressed or because they consider that others relate negatively towards them. The procedure of changing negative relating to positive (i.e. Relating Therapy) is introduced. Even though conventional psychotherapists do not consciously or specifically direct their attention towards the elimination of negative relating, patients’ PROQ3 scores tend to reduce significantly over the course of psychotherapy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, Technological Educational Institute of Crete (TEI of Crete), Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Argyroula Kalaitzaki

  2. Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK

    John Birtchnell

Authors
  1. Argyroula Kalaitzaki
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  2. John Birtchnell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychiatry, University of Kings College London, London, United Kingdom

    John Birtchnell

  2. Department of Psychology, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Michelle Newberry

  3. TEI of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

    Argyroula Kalaitzaki

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Kalaitzaki, A., Birtchnell, J. (2016). Negative Relating and Psychotherapy. In: Birtchnell, J., Newberry, M., Kalaitzaki, A. (eds) Relating Theory – Clinical and Forensic Applications. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50459-3_13

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