The reflective practice of helping a person to maintain adequate self-relation

As part of an effort to understand the specific character of a persons self-referencing treatment, the present study assesses the impact of the practitioners facility on the self and the self-related process within helping relationships. An aim of the study is to process and develop the reflective practice of helping a person to maintain adequate self-relation with him or herself. A case study research method was assigned to form a single whole of reported helping and supportive work with one participant. This was a useful approach to consider a persons subjective accounts of experienced selfreferring treatment within encounter relationships and to consider themes rather than research data. This study explores some essential qualities of a self-relational process through research interview: (a) the cohesion of internalised selfobjects (thoughts, sensations, images, and desires); (b) the constancy of these selfobjects to the experience of reorganising the self; and (c) the degree to which the selfobjects change in response to changes in circumstances (resilience). Some basic conditions of providing the help and support within the participants self-relational process are described in terms of the exploration of practitioners attempts to assist these qualities. The findings indicate some basic propositions towards the understanding of a persons adequate self-relation. The implications of these findings are discussed