Having listened to people for a long time, I believe many of us should be thankful not to be shot.
The first goal is for the clinician to find the patient, and the patient to find the clinician, as both are required for a real alliance.
An argument can be made that relationship building is the treatment.
Today many medications act across diagnostic groups. Alliance effects also transcend specific psychotherapy methods. Both may be affecting profound psychopathological processes.
Above all, the clinician must not shake what little faith the patient has in himself.
Of course they fought as lovers must do to find a liveable space.
Many patients cannot hear until they feel heard.
Suffering brings the patient to us...the patient needs to feel heard and seen-that is, met, by another person.
The slow compromise, or even surrender, of our fondest hopes is a regular feature of normal human life.