The concept of space in the context of the therapeutic relationship

The target-driven culture of health care is changing the dynamic of the therapeutic relationship, argue Theodore Stickley and Dawn Freshwater. As a result, ‘space’ – a place of sanctuary and peace – is threatened unless practitioners strive to avoid filling it with ‘busyness’ and ‘doing’

There has been a noticeable shift in the way in which therapeutic space is both conceived of and used in recent years. Where once individual sessions were underpinned and, to a certain extent, led by psychological theories of relationships, more recently the focus appears to emphasise the importance of structured assessments and care plan reviews. Unsurprisingly, this shift of focus has a significant impact not only on the practitioner and the patient, but also on the way that the therapeutic space itself is structured.