Relational-depth practice

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · Dave Mearns, Mick Cooper · 1990

What it is

Relational-depth practice is not a separate therapy with a manual. It is a way of relating, and a set of therapist capacities, that grew out of person-centred therapy. Mearns first wrote about it in the 1990s. Mearns and Cooper offer it to practitioners of every orientation as a common factor. A…

Format

• No manualised phases. The sources do not set out fixed stages, session counts or rules for moving from one phase to the next. What follows is a working frame I have assembled from how the book is organised and from its case chapters.]
• Moving between phases. The client leads. The therapist offers depth and invites it but never forces it. When a client retreats to the surface, the therapist reads that as information about safety, not as failure.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Format and length. Individual therapy with no fixed duration. The case material ranges from short contacts to long-term work, and depth can occur in early sessions. The sources give no session norms. The concept also applies in groups and encounter groups, in supervision and in training.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Over-identifying with the client.
• Hiding behind the professional role.
• Idealising depth. [Cooper 2012 proof]
• Treating development as a box to tick.
• Shame at hearing oneself. Data-protection duties.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.