Clinical relatedness with persons having schizophrenia: A symbolic interactionist perspective

The practive of psychotherapy with persons having schizophrenia has been increasingly abandoned by clinical social workers, even as an adjunct to broad psychosocial interventions, due to the rise in prominence of case management and biological interventions. The author opposes this trend and presents a rationale for including long-term relationship-based clinical treatment with the client population as a major portion of a comprehensive treatment milieu. This article focuses on the difficult process of developing the treatment relationship and is based on a conceptual framework of symbolic interactionism. The process, including seven practive guidelines, is illustrated with a case example.