Summary: | Aim. The aim of the study was to investigate how CAT practitioners working in an outpatient clinic experience ruptures to the therapeutic alliance when working with a case diagnosis of borderline personality in the National Health Service. Method. Ten working practitioners were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. Interviews were audiotaped and a synthesis technique of grounded theory was used to analyse the data. Findings. A model was derived from the findings. Three core categories were found: firstly, fear experienced by practitioners, illustrating how they felt during a rupture, secondly, cognitive processes in the management of ruptures, illustrating the survival tools used, and finally, resolution of rupture, illustrating interventions used to repair the rupture. Conclusion. The findings of this study indicate that practitioners’ internal processes could affect how they deliver interventions. Most importantly, they suggest that we as practitioners should offer a secure base of support not only to our clients but also to each other as colleagues within the professional community of Counselling Psychology.
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