The relational approach and client centred approach - the similarities and difference as focused psychological therapies.

Both relational and client-centred approaches put the client's needs and goals at the forefront, but they differ in focus and methods to supporting insight and change.

The relational approach emphasises what happens between the practitioner and client, using their shared interactions not only as a pathway to healing but also as a way to understand and address the problems together. The relational approach views challenges not as individual issues but as shaped by relationships—past and present. It views growth and healing as something that happens through connection and understanding within relationships.

A client-centred approach focuses more on supporting the individual to achieve their goals, often seeing problems as personal. While a relational approach is also client-centred—it adapts to the client’s goals and resources—it uniquely highlights the power of human connection in overcoming challenges. Both approaches share a commitment to empowering people, but the relational model leans into the importance of relationships as a key to understanding oneself and to change.

When Anthony Ryle developed Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), he aimed to integrate theories that helped to explain human experience as shaped by internal, external and inter-subjective factors. Operating as a busy GP in the UK's NHS system, he saw the pragmatic value and therapeutic benefits of developing accessible ways to operationalise relational approaches. Evolutions of the model over time, and it's uses in a variety of helping professions and contexts have shown these integrated elements support practitioners' use of the therapeutic relationship in day to day practice, allowing them to be accountably client centred, relational and contextual.

This integrated approach to practice reflects human reality in a much more realistic way - we are all after all individuals with internal worlds shaped by, and shaping our relationships, as we develop and exist in a myriad of social contexts over our lifespan. Having tools and skills to share this multi-dimensional understanding of the self, others and challenges we encounter in an active way is one of the benefits of training in a focused psychological strategy that integrates and emphasises a relational approach.

You can learn more about CAT through the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy's website, and find out more about upcoming training opportunities in CAT informed relational skills for practice through Relate and Reflect, or the fully accredited training program in CAT at In Dialogue.