Umgang mit Spannungen und Krisen in der Therapiebeziehung

Tension and crises in the therapeutic relationship inevitably occur in the course of every psychotherapy. They entail a high risk of premature termination of therapy and poor therapy outcome. This article discusses selected concepts relating to the emergence of tension and crises from different perspectives: transference and countertransference, scenic understanding, control mastery theory and alliance ruptures. Techniques for successfully dealing with tension and alliance ruptures are described. These involve the perception of alliance ruptures and to explore them directly in the here and now, thereby staying authentic, taking a stance of candid ignorance and exploring one’s own contribution to the entanglement. The contents are illustrated using a case example. The alliance focused training (AFT) is presented as a way to train the competence of therapists in dealing with tension and crises.