Abstract

This study describes the fundamental nature of the client-therapist relationship. Current research has found this relationship to be more predictive of psychotherapeutic progress than any specific technique or general theoretical approach. Relationship researchers, however, have yet to develop a compelling description or definition of the therapy relationship. They have focused instead on establishing and perfecting psychometric instruments. This study demonstrates that the field's neglect of definitional efforts is the probable result of methodological procedures that derive, broadly speaking, from the empiricism of David Hume. These procedures assume ontological and epistemological positions that lead to overlooking foundational descriptive analysis. The study explicates an alternative methodology-the transcendental phenomenology of Edmund Husserl---and demonstrates how this method, unlike Hume's empiricism, provides an objective procedure for describing the essential nature of the therapy relationship. Using this methodology, the study articulates, analyzes, and describes the elemental aspects of the therapy relationship. The study delineates the "bonding" or "conjunctive" ontology that underlies personal relations . It then explores complex subjective states that are inherent in all personal relations. Finally, it offers a look at the ramifications of the study's metaphysical and descriptive findings upon the counseling process, relationship research, counselor training, and philosophical and therapeutic theory.