title: Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship building for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
abstract: Treatment options for patients with schizophrenia demand further improvement. One way to achieve this improvement is the translation of findings from basic research into new specific interventions. Beyond that, addressing the therapy relationship has the potential to enhance both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. This paper introduces motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR) building for schizophrenia. MOTR enables therapists to proactively adapt to their patient's needs and to prevent problematic behaviors. For example, a patient might consider medication as helpful in principle, but the rejection of medication might be one of his few remaining means for his acceptable motive to stay autonomous despite hospitalization. A therapist who is motive-oriented proactively offers many degrees of freedom to this patient in order to satisfy his need for autonomy and to weaken the motivational basis for not taking medication. MOTR makes use of findings from basic and psychotherapy research and is generic in this respect, but at the same time guides therapeutic action precisely and flexibly in a patient oriented way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern , Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Westermann
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Center, University Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marialuisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavelti
authors.affiliation: Private Psychotherapeutic Practice Heibach , Lastrup, Germany.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heibach
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern , Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Caspar
keywords: CBT; Plan Analysis; case conceptualization; motive-oriented therapeutic relationship; psychosis; schizophrenia; therapeutic relationship