Therapeutic alliance in correctional settings: a psychodynamic perspective

Inherent difficulties exist when providing therapeutic services in correctional settings. Working within a correctional setting can also be demoralising due to therapeutic, systemic, and ethical issues rarely encountered in most other settings. One way to minimise this discouragement and help ensure successful treatment when working with inmate-clients is strategically attending to the therapeutic alliance. From a broad psychodynamic perspective, this paper explores the many challenges to and opportunities for building, strengthening, and repairing the therapeutic alliance likely to arise in correctional settings. Several therapeutic alliance experiences that can manifest while working with inmate-clients, including factors that have the potential to rupture and/or repair the therapeutic alliance, are illustrated using a case vignette. Suggestions for establishing and nurturing the therapeutic alliance with inmate-clients are then offered and discussed. The structural and cultural characteristics of many correctional facilities often require the correctional therapist to creatively navigate complexities to support their inmate-clients’ therapeutic change, complexities that introduce unique threats to the therapeutic alliance. However, this paper posits that these complexities also present unique opportunities for fostering the therapeutic alliance. As presented in this paper, recognising and capitalising on these opportunities can prove advantageous.