ABSTRACT
The central issue involved in personal and social development is creative authenticity. Being creative and authentic means assuming authorship of one’s own life. The creative ability to cope with difficult experiences in our lives is something that counselling and psychotherapy can and should systematically enhance. One factor of central moment for a creative attitude, as for counselling and psychotherapy in general, is the quality of the helping relationship. The chapter looks briefly at the conclusions modern psychotherapy research draws from its studies. It identifies five central areas common to the individual counselling and therapy schools, albeit with differing emphasis: establishing a helping relationship; insight into problems and conflicts; strengthening of selfhood and self-efficacy; enhancement of interpersonal relations; and actualization of resources. The chapter focuses on the subjective factor operative in counselling and psychotherapy, while at the same time indicating objective criteria that can be drawn upon to verify the value and coherence of psychotherapeutic interventions.
