The Power of Relationships in Recovery
By Carrie Barron, MD
Psychiatrist in Charge, Substance Use IOP
“Attentiveness is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Relationships are crucial for effective recovery. Not just the relationship between patient and clinician, but the relationships formed with peers in the treatment community. These relationships can even help clients create a new sense of identity, whether by reclaiming a past self or creating a new, more positive one.
According to Mary Catherine Beach and Thomas Inui of Johns Hopkins University, Relationship-centered Care (RCC) in medicine involves authentic personhood, affect and emotion, reciprocity and genuine engagement.
In my work, Relationship-centered Care is a core value. From individual sessions to group therapy, my colleagues and I aim to cultivate authenticity, naturalness and concern in the care process. Our aim is to understand, as much as we can, where our clients are now and where they are trying to go.
We want to know what they’re feeling, thinking and doing, and what they wish to change.
Research shows that relationships formed in treatment can help patients develop a better sense of identity. Genevieve Dingle of the University of Queensland and her colleagues interviewed 21 people in the substance use treatment community. They found that the relationships formed in group work helped patients follow two distinct pathways: reclaiming a past positive identity, or creating a new aspirational one.
In a treatment community, people can uncover buried capacities or build new ones. Engaging with others, from staff who had successful recovery journeys to peers with similar goals, builds strength. Bonding via commonalities satisfies the need for connection and unearths motivation. Kind gestures, helping hands, and lighthearted comments create fuel for staying the course.
Through meaningful relationships with both caregivers and other care-seekers, a new narrative can emerge. A culture of honesty, acceptance and non-judgment breeds authenticity and allows for emotional risk. The details that clients share, and the way they share them, can be clues for creating a treatment that works.