Relational Common Factors in Structured Training for Psychotherapy: A Scoping Review

Abstract Accumulating psychotherapy effectiveness research has moved clinical focus increasingly from techniques toward relational context, yet training has not drawn a fully parallel lesson: relational factors are emphasized as training content, but not similarly treated as formative properties of the training context itself. However, relational dynamics of training—paralleling common factors in therapy—may be as central to professional development as its structured procedures. This scoping review aimed to map and synthesize three decades of empirical research linking relational common factors to learning in structured training contexts with psychotherapy-related learners. Following the five-stage framework of Arksey and O’Malley, a systematic search of PsycINFO supplemented by hand-searching yielded 1744 records, of which 92 were included and subjected to numerical mapping and thematic analysis. Relational common factors were mapped across trainer, peer, and setting-related sources. Among these, trainers’ and trainees’ genuine investment in training content and relationships were the most frequent influences—echoing dynamics of the therapeutic alliance. Thematic synthesis revealed that diverse relational factors may operate through a common underlying pattern: they appear to support learners by establishing a sense of coherence between various kinds of contexts that might otherwise feel fragmented. We termed this pattern Cross-Contextual Continuity, and highlighted six ways trainers, peers, and organizations can promote or weaken it through how they relate to participants and content. Though further research is needed, we propose a conceptual framework to understand how relational factors may influence learning. Implications for training design and common factors theories are considered.