SOWK 3060 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Therapeutic Relationship
Document Summary
The exchange of gifts is usually a way of showing respect and appreciation. Patient"" and a professional, gifts are in general not allowed or at least are discouraged. Such acts are not supposed to be a part of a paid, helping relationship. Some believe that such gift-giving contributes to an unhealthy dependency for the patient, or is a threat to the therapeutic alliance. The very fact that rules such as these are broken in actual day- to-day practice should instead be an openly discussed issue about what constitutes good"" professional and therapeutic conduct. Supporting"" people was also described by participants as challenging them. For example, disagreeing and even getting one"s butt kicked"" could be experienced as supportive: the participants in this study welcomed more professionals with open attitudes about what kind of assistance actually helps. This does not mean that specialist knowledge and experience is worthless or irrelevant.
