IJSP Number 4, 2022

39 What causes a fruitful therapeutic relationship? What predicts a desirable or undesirable development? Progress presumably occurs not only when things are permanently harmonious, but sometimes precisely when „ tensions ” arise. Certain heightened states of tension as components of a dynamic therapeutic process are not only unavoidable, they are helpful and sometimes purposefully induced, e.g., in certain feedback or confrontational interventions. However, there are also moments or phases when the whole atmosphere of the therapeutic relationship can „ turn ” , e.g. from a cooperative to a hostile mood. When does this happen and under what conditions? Is it always bad and has to be avoided? The following questions arise specifically for clinical supervision related to the second sphere mentioned above (between supervisee and supervisor): What obstacles must be expected in bringing up and working on problems of this kind in supervision? How can the relationship experience in supervision between supervisee and supervisor be linked to the processing of such relationship problems arising in the therapies of the supervisee? 2. Why and when does the therapeutic relationship become centre stage? We begin with how this issue manifests itself in therapy and then move on to supervision. The possibility that what is going on in the relationship between therapist and client may become the focus of attention without being noticed or unconsciously has already been addressed. This can have far-reaching and unpleasant consequences if it remains unnoticed by both parties and is not thematized. The patient may unconsciously idealize the therapist, for example, and the therapist may permanently „ bask ” in the glow of this recognition. In this case, the relationship dominates unnoticed the foreground, the actual therapeutic task is only a „ side show ” . We will come back to this constellation later under the term „ therapeutic juxtaposition ” . In the following, we will deal with the variant of conscious, intentional centring on the relationship. The therapeutic relationship should service to overcome or improve the patient ’ s state of suffering; it is not an end in itself. If instead of the immediate life problems, which were and are the reason for therapy, the relationship between patient and therapist becomes the focus, then this can arise from different constellations. First possibility: relationship centring as a resource of interpersonal solitary community In dealing with the immediate problems of life, the patient may have reached a state (exhaustion, despair, helplessness, feeling of loneliness, etc.) that makes it necessary for her to reassure herself that she is not alone in all this, that there is someone who can give her room to “ catch her breath ” before she can go on with her life again. In this case, centring on the relationship is a momentary occurrence; it is a kind of pause for recovery and reassurance. Such an approach largely corresponds to what Kästl [7], following Metzger, means by „ nurturing. ” “This nurturing form of relationship will be necessary above all when the client is strongly emotionally involved in a topic to be worked on and only needs noticeable sympathy, time and patience from the therapist in order, for example, to be able to expose herself to stressful feelings and live through them, in the best case to be able to conclude