these relational images and giving context to their fears, expectations, and behaviors.
Controlling Images
According to RCT, controlling images are a set of categories and expectations developed by the dominant group to distort and disempower a nondominant group (Hill Collins, 2000; Jordan, 2018). Hill Collins (2000) explored the notion of controlling images, a central tenet of RCT, in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. The chapter “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images” brings context to RCT’s focus on power structures within social and cultural contexts. According to Hill Collins, racially and ethnically marginalized groups are categorized and stereotyped to validate the oppression and mistreatment of disenfranchised groups.
Controlling images result in social injustices, which are normalized in the larger societal sphere. People are then blamed for these injustices and for their own oppression. The concept of controlling images recognizes that every person carries multiple identities. It is therefore important that people understand the spaces and places they inhabit and recognize where the multiplicity of identities is underscored or silenced. RCT concurs that these controlling images remain in place to systematically keep people in categories and, as a result, bring harm to members of disenfranchised groups. Using an RCT framework, counselors take into account the controlling images imposed on certain groups as they help their clients deconstruct harmful images and better understand their impact on their intersection of identities (Haberstroh et al., 2020; Hill Collins, 2000; see Sidebar 2.5).
Sidebar 2.5 Let’s Go to the Movies!
A great way to get a feel for RCT is to apply it to some of your favorite movies. Consider how relational or controlling images are affecting the main character. How does this character connect with others? What role does power play in the film? RCT can be used to (a) explore the main character’s development in relationship to others, (b) examine the central relational paradox, and (c) explore how a character might feel about connection. Using RCT to examine films can help develop an understanding of the theory.
Relational Resilience
Resilience is a term that conjures for many an image of a person “bouncing back” from adversity or loss. Traditional models of resilience often credit individual qualities, such as hardiness, strength, and a “can do” attitude as markers for resilience (Hartling et al., 2020). By contrast, RCT offers a relational conceptualization of resilience and identifies relationships as core contributors to a person’s resilience. It also recognizes that people may appear resilient when, in fact, they may be harboring unacknowledged pain, stress, or trauma that interferes with their well-being and relationships. Resilience is relationally based, and the counseling relationship is integral to such healing.
Relational Ethics
Counselors abide by the ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) and use a decision-making model in ethical practice (Remley & Herlihy, 2019). Counselors utilizing an RCT framework recognize that principle ethics may be disconnecting and represent a power-over dynamic. By contrast, relational ethics accounts for the mutuality in the counseling relationship and honors shared decision-making. Does this mean there are no boundaries or ethical processes in relational ethics? Birrell and Bruns (2016) addressed this question:
In RCT, no proposition is evident that advocates for a casual ethical stance or one that privileges the client’s voice over the counselor’s voice, the ACA Code of Ethics (2014a), or the legal system. However, inherent in RCT is a stance against disconnected, separate-self decision making. (p. 395)
A collaborative and mutual ethical decision-making process honors the ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) that places a client’s welfare as the foundation for ethical counseling practice.
APPLICATIONS
Overview
RCT, as a theory, conceptualizes relational competency as a developmental marker of well-being. Whereas other theories promote autonomy and separation as cornerstones of growth, RCT sees a person’s capacity to forge and sustain growth-fostering relationships as reflective of human growth (Jordan, 2018). RCT views change as occurring toward and through relationships, and it sees the quality of the therapeutic relationship as core to therapeutic success (Jordan, 2018). The goals of counseling and psychotherapy, and the process of change, are grounded in (a) cocreating a collaborative, growth-fostering relationship; (b) recognizing, honoring, and working through disconnections; (c) exploring relevant relational and controlling images; and (d) identifying the societal and cultural power structures that influence these while creating a growth-fostering therapeutic space. Authenticity, mutual empathy, and power-with relating all contribute to the kind of relationship that best supports successful therapeutic outcomes (Jordan, 2018).
Goals of Counseling and Psychotherapy
The goals of counseling and psychotherapy from an RCT framework involve facilitating growth through connection and identifying the therapeutic relationship as central to healing. They involve fostering human development and recognizing the societal, cultural, and relational factors that either support or impede this development. From an RCT perspective, giving context to the situation and voice to those with less power opens possibilities for people to work through disconnections and ruptures and to reconnect in new ways.
The Process of Change
The quality of a growth-fostering therapeutic relationship is the agent of change, according to RCT. The process involves counselor authenticity, as well as the encouragement and support of the client’s vulnerability. It requires counselors to also allow themselves to be vulnerable, first by being open to being moved by the client and the client’s story, and second by being aware of the power inherent in the relationship and using that power appropriately. Counselors create a space in which clients can grow in their authenticity and rework their disconnections. Counselors respect their clients’ histories by honoring the pace of their movement and their disconnecting strategies, and they respect their clients’ readiness to reenter connection. Counselors also honor the clients’ readiness to bring their authenticity into the relationship.
Therapeutic change involves counselors connecting with the clients’ pain and circumstances in ways that allow themselves to be affected by the client (i.e., through mutual empathy). Together, counselor and client explore the relational and controlling images that affect them, rework disconnections, and navigate the power systems that influence their worlds and lives. The process is not seamless, and the counselor stays attuned to the clients’ verbal and nonverbal responses (see Sidebar 2.6).
Techniques and Interventions
RCT counselors do not use the language of techniques and interventions; rather, they strive to breathe life into the basic RCT constructs through their application. First, they consider the context of the situation in conceptualizing and assessing the situation. Then they consider the relational and controlling images that clients carry. Counselors and clients collaboratively identify the disconnections that clients experience. Looking at the broader cultural context as an impactful factor in clients’ experiences can help them gain compassion for themselves
