Understanding the impact of childhood developmental stages on the therapeutic alliance: Deconstruction of the therapeutic alliance viewed from a developmental perspective

The author challenges the usual divisions into one person and two person therapeutic approaches, and the emphases on I’ness versus we’ness, by applying the childhood stages of development through symbiosis/attachment followed by autonomy/ differentiation to what is needed as the client revisits these stages in creating a relationship with a practitioner. Regardless of therapeutic techniques used, the practitioner needs to be alert to the inevitable switch from positive attachment to the apparent conflict as the client seeks to establish a separation from a parent figure that may not have happened in childhood.