Therapeutic alliance.

I have been very fortunate in my journey of mental illness. I respond well to medication, but I don't think that is the complete answer to living successfully with serious, persistent mental illness. I believe a person's environment is also of utmost importance, enabling the person suffering with mental illness to continually grow in life. I found early in my struggle with mental illness a psychiatrist with whom I have always had a very good rapport. Until recently I didn't know that what I have with this psychiatrist is professionally known as a therapeutic alliance. Over the years, when I need someone to talk over anything that is troubling to me, I seek my psychiatrist. A therapeutic alliance is non-judgmental; it is nourishing; and finally it is a relationship of complete trust. Perhaps persons reading this article who have never experienced this alliance will seek it. I believe it can make an insecure person secure; a frightened person less frightened; and allow a person to continue the journey of mental health with a sense of belief in oneself.