The aim of Interpersonal Therapy is to facilitate clients’ emotional growth by improving their communication and interpersonal skills – leading to more social support and higher quality relationships.
What is Interpersonal Therapy?
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) or Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPP) is a form of psychotherapy that uses the relationship between Counsellor and Client as a therapeutic tool. The Counsellor uses the interpersonal process between them to highlight how the client is relating and what they might like to do differently in their outside relationships. The aim of Interpersonal Therapy is to facilitate clients’ emotional growth by improving their communication and interpersonal skills – leading to more social support and higher quality relationships.
In the context of Interpersonal Therapy, clients have habituated behaviours that get in the way of them relating in their most optimum ways. They habitually engage in relational patterns that lead to interpersonal problems with others. Interpersonal Therapy helps clients to see how their historic relational patterns are being activated and are creating issues between themselves and others. It uses what is happening currently in the here and now between Counsellor and Client to track themes clients are presenting in the room and to identify and change patterns that are no longer useful in the client’s social world.
Interpersonal Therapy is particularly unique and effective as it illustrates how their relationships can be better. It is a felt, experiential learning process that helps clients internalize new ways of relating in their world. Rather than simply discussing how things could be improved, clients have real experiences of improved relating that become internalized.
How Did Interpersonal Therapy Develop?
Interpersonal Therapy grew out of Attachment theory and Interpersonal psychoanalysis and was developed in 1969. Attachment theory explores the clients’ original attachment experiences and how they influence their ongoing relational patterns. Interpersonal psychoanalysis focusses on the formation of self-identity which is believed to be built up through perceptions of how clients are viewed by significant others in their environments. Interpersonal therapy is a newer form of therapy which also focusses on relational patterns and self-identify but puts more emphasis on current problems in relationships than what happened in the past, with a view to enhancing the client’s experience of all relationships.
Interpersonal Therapy can be conducted in a short, medium, or long term way and is effective in achieving both short and long-term goals. Clients are encouraged to apply new ways of relating in their lives currently and in future. It is not an approach that is applied to everyone in the same way but involves a person-centered framework that requires adaptation to each individual’s specific needs.
Why do I Struggle in My Relationships with Others?
Most people develop adaptive patterns in childhood to deflect or suppress difficult feelings. Often attachment figures (mom, dad, close siblings, grandparents) didn’t help us to contain these difficult feelings and these adaptive behaviours protected us from emotions that were overwhelming for us. Originally, they were useful in protecting us from feeling misunderstood or from not being seen or heard or being unsupported in our feelings. They were useful at the time but often become ineffective coping strategies for us as adults. These behaviours tend to develop into internal working models (paradigms) or relational templates (default patterns) that become habituated responses that define how one learns to behave. Examples of these may include:
- Habitual efforts to be “nice” or “good” in order to feel valued by others
- Heavy reliance on work or acts of service to compensate for feelings of inadequacy
- Overuse of humour to diffuse tension and deflect away from conflict
- Being the “responsible” one or taking care of others in order to feel worthy
People can become dependent on these for their sense of worth; sometimes so much so that providing themselves with even a basic level of self-care can feel selfish and unreasonable.
As mature, competent adults, we no longer need to lean so heavily into these old adaptive behaviours. But they can be so entrenched and habituated in our behaviour that they are second nature to us. And they can continue to do damage our most important relationships. Interpersonal therapy can uncover who you really are underneath your adaptive behaviours and help you to develop new, more effective relational patterns.
What happens between Client and Counsellor in Interpersonal Therapy?
The Counsellor’s first priority is to establish a strong, respectful working alliance with their client. They believe that therapeutic change occurs within a trusting, warm relationship in which they are empathically attuned to their client.
Next, the Counsellor identifies and highlights how the client is engaging with them in ways that are potentially problematic in their outside world. They will provide feedback on what the client is doing specifically in the therapy that may be creating problems with others in their lives. They gently bring these insights to the client’s attention by sharing their personal responses to how the client is relating to them. The here and now is used to reflect on what is happening between the Counsellor and the client right in the therapy room. The counsellor provides interpersonal feedback working “in the moment” with the client and so the client experiences the impact of new ways of relating then and there. It is a very real way of relating and one that clients may find confronting at first but it is done with warmth and respect; clients usually develop strong appreciation for being able to converse in this deeply authentic way – something that isn’t always possible or helpful to do with friends and peers who do not have substantial training in emotional regulation and non-violent communication.
Counsellors foster increased clarity around clients understanding their part in what they are doing that is not being well-received by others. Clients see with new eyes how they are impacting others around them and learn to anticipate how their patterns disrupt their relationships. Client and Counsellor work together to find ways of changing the familiar but ineffective patterns and discuss new ways of responding that can resolve instead of repeat problematic patterns in relationships. They develop plans together about how the client can implement new practices in specific situations in their outside world that will be more effective in relating to others. The new skills are practiced with the therapist so that clients become confident in their new skills. Then they are encouraged to transfer these new ways of relating out in their external worlds and grow into their new selves.
The relationship between the Counsellor and Client is a real-life experience that becomes a powerful learning laboratory where clients become aware of how past patterns are interfering with how they would prefer to be relating to others.
This is a very individualized way of working that focuses specifically on each clients’ behaviour. It is not a formulaic model. It is an interpersonal process that unfolds organically in the therapy room and is designed to empower clients to engage more effectively in all their relationships.
How will Interpersonal Therapy enhance my emotional growth and my relationships?
Higher levels of self-awareness are pivotal in Interpersonal Therapy and result in increased emotional growth. Self-awareness is achieved by recognizing adaptive behaviours and understanding what was happening in early life that resulted in their original formation. You will experience yourself becoming more aware of your responses in relationships – and more flexible and skilful in how you respond. Interpersonal Therapy can enable you to choose to release yourself from relying on ineffectual historic reactions and to implement new responses that reflect your authenticity.
This therapeutic change doesn’t finish in the therapy room but extends to the client’s private life. The client takes their new learning into their outside life and continues to practice applying new ways of behaving in all their relationships with others. This process is very empowering and once it is understood, clients become powerful influencers in their own relational worlds. They can become more selective in their choice of friends and partners, develop more extensive social networks with supportive others, and navigate interpersonal challenges more skilfully.
Ultimately, interpersonal therapy is a life-affirming experience that will enable you to release yourself from unhelpful ways of interacting and to claim responses that strengthen your authenticity and reflect who you really want to be.
External Links:
Visit Psych Today to read more on IPP: Interpersonal Psychotherapy on Psychology Today
See an overview of IPP at Interpersonalpsychotherapy.org: Overview of IPP
