Therapeutic relationship with immigrants and other groups with chronic stress and social exclusion: extended therapeutic relationship

Abstract

In situations of extreme stress and social exclusion, the therapeutic relation link has specific characteristics; it is «The extended therapeutic relationship». This relationship is characterized from the side of the patient by the hostility and the somatic expression and from the side of the professional by the impotence feelings, frustration and even burn-out. It is very important in our point of view the process of adaptation in the intervention from the perspective transference-countertransference, the time of therapeutic space, and the attention to cultural and social aspects of patient reality.