ABSTRACT
The concept of the `therapeutic relationship' holds a special place in the discourse of psychotherapy. On the one hand, the therapeutic relationship is held to be the chief `common factor' to all models and to be a decisive, if not the decisive determinant, of therapeutic effectiveness (Orlinsky et al., 1994). On the other hand, it is also a term that can be vague in usage, and its importance may be conceptually susceptible to over-in¯ation (Feltham, 1999).
