Development of therapeutic alliance in a high-secure hospital, V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How is therapeutic alliance developed in individual psychotherapy in a high-secure hospital? Patients’ and therapists’ theory.
IRAS ID
304361
Contact name
Veronika Zouharova
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The State Hospital
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Therapeutic alliance is a collaborative relationship between patients and therapists that supports therapeutic work. A good therapeutic alliance between patients and therapists has been linked to patients’ improved mental health and reduced risk. However, researchers know little about patients' and therapists' views of how their therapeutic alliance develops in forensic settings (such as prisons or secure hospitals), and if their views are similar or different.
This study will explore patients’ and therapists’ views of how their therapeutic alliance develops when they work together in individual psychotherapy sessions in a high-secure hospital in Scotland. The researcher will recruit patients and therapists with experience of individual psychotherapy within this hospital and ask them to participate in an interview, which is expected to last around 45 minutes. During the interview, patients and therapists will be asked what they think is important for a good therapeutic alliance to develop, what the challenges are, and how these challenges are managed. Their responses will be analysed and a theory of how therapeutic alliance develops in this context will be formed. When forming this theory, the researcher will note if the views of patients and therapists are similar or different. Participants' basic characteristics will also be collected, either from their electronic records (for patients) or from a short questionnaire (for therapists).
Anonymised findings of the study will be written up in the researcher’s doctoral thesis and fed back to other researchers, clinicians, and patients. The findings may help us understand how patients and therapists in high-secure hospitals could develop therapeutic alliance more effectively. This may then lead to improvements in the patients' mental health and reductions in their risk and may generally make these environments a safer space for both patients and professionals.The study is expected to start in autumn 2021 and end in spring 2023.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
21/NS/0156
Date of REC Opinion
26 Nov 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion