Therapeutic alliance

Abstract

In today’s mental health care, the field of practice for advanced practice mental health nurses (APMHNs) is extensive and exacting. While there are many important required skills and competencies, there is something that remains as a core of all mental health nursing, the therapeutic alliance. APMHNs are in a key position to support, enhance and enable the therapeutic alliance in mental health practice. APMHNs work with service users, families, groups, networks and communities, with the therapeutic alliance as the core of their practice. This chapter provides APMHNs and interested readers different viewpoints of the therapeutic alliance while at the same time acknowledging the difficulty of capturing the unique essence of the therapeutic encounter. The aim of the chapter is to encourage APMHNs to grow and cultivate their competence in the therapeutic alliance and to develop further their professional competence to ensure high-quality mental health care.