The Relational School is a broad based community of psychotherapists, counsellors and psychoanalysts who are dedicated to broadening their understanding of the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship. A great deal of research shows that the nature of the therapeutic relationship is crucial to a productive psychotherapy. Relational psychotherapists and counsellors are devoted to understanding the nature of this very special relationship that occurs in therapy. Specifically, relational therapists utilise the therapeutic relationship in order to become conscious of interpersonal dynamics between their clients and themselves to better enable the understanding of the client’s relational style. Our activities aim to create forums for further discovery about realtionality from a variety of therapeutic disciplines as well as being a formal association for relational thinking in the UK. TRS is open to individuals from all modalities of counselling and psychotherapy; all of those who are interested in what can broadly be understood as ‘relational’. Our members come from a broad variety of accrediting and registration bodies and are representative of the panoply of varieties of clinical practice in the UK and abroad.
TRS Organising Committee:
- Chair: Robert Downes
- Secretary: Judy Yellin
- Executive Officers: Chance Czyzselska, Sandra Hilton, Nemone Metaxas, Claudia Celadon.
Administrator: Jane Nairne
The Relational School developed from a group of psychotherapists and analysts who devoted themselves to working through ideas from relational psychoanalysis within an informal London study group. In 2004 this group put together a popularly attended ‘Teach-In’ entitled ‘What is Relational Psychotherapy’ at South Hampstead High School in London. This event garnered a great deal of attention in the psychotherapy community from which a steering group emerged to organise further events. This fledgling group became the executive committee for The Relational School. A few years later the executive also became the official UK chapter of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). TRS is no longer a chapter of IARPP.
Today we have members from a range of accrediting and registration organisations. Further we have counsellors and psychotherapists from a broad base of clinical practice including TA, humanistic, existential, psychoanalytic, Jungian, integrative, gestalt, body psychotherapy, etc. If you are interested in our organisation, please get in contact with us by using the contact form above.
The Relational School 