The Role of Therapeutic Communication in Interpersonal Relationships as Perceived by the Employees of the Women's Health Training Project Main Office

Abstract

In recent years technology has undoubtedly changed the working environment leaving people alienated of their needs as employees of an organization. Hence, it has become a trend that people turn to therapy as a way to gain personal insight and reorientation. In this regard, therapeutic communication has been a concept introduced by Barnlund (1968) and Gary Kreps (1986) as a viable alternative to improving employee relationships and working climate. This form of human interaction is an offshoot of therapy groups, particularly ones utilized by such psychotherapists as Carl Rogers and Sidney Jourard. The rationale behind the researcher's interest in therapeutic communication is that there must be a way to maintain effective interpersonal work relationships to conjure good working conditions and work environment for the employees of an organization. This study is deemed significant to employees as individuals, to the study of organizational communication, to the field of psychology, to the study of organizations, and to society in general. The organization of study is the Women's Health Training Project has 17 constituents, 2 of which are Australian. The study only focuses on the 15 Filipino employees to be relieved of any intervening cultural variables. There are four (4) objectives of the study : 1. To determine what information employees under the WHTP Main Office discuss most frequently under an informal setting and how these topics correspond in breadth and depth; 2. To identify the traits of perceived therapeutic communicators that make self-disclosure possible between the employees of the WHTP Main Office; 3. To know the measure of attitudes toward trust, honesty, empathy, validation, and caring in Interpersonal relationships as perceived by the employees of the WHTP Main Office; 4. To know the measure of attitudes toward trust, honestly, empathy, validation, and caring in interpersonal relationships as perceived to be shown by the employees of the WHTP Main Office toward other employees. In theory, therapeutic communication has five (5) communicative traits : trust, honestly, empathy, validation, and caring. The prescribed roles of therapeutic communication are Improved self-understanding, satisfaction of personal needs, and accomplishment of personal goals. On the other hand, Taylor and Altman's Social Penetration Theory is used where the intensity interaction are shown through the breadth and depth concept. Breadth refers to the “array of variety of topics that have been incorporated into the individual's life” while depth refers to the amount of information available on each breadth. (Littlejohn, 1989) Self-disclosure identifies breadth and depth and the roles of therapeutic communication at the operational level. The researcher employed a descriptive method of study. An after-only survey (one shot survey) was used and an interview schedule was used to validate the qualifications of the perceived therapeutic communicator. A pretest was done on a neighboring organization, the Field Epidemiology Training Project (FETP) and no modifications were deemed necessary. Due to time and schedule constraints, the study used a purposive non-probability sampling method. The Likert scale was adapted from the Communication Climate Inventory made by Pace and Faules (1994) for the survey. Other data gathered were tallied in by frequency, rank, and percentage. The percentile was used in most parts of the data analysis. Besides primary data from surveys and the interview, the researcher also used secondary sources. The researcher did an informal observation during his stay at the organization for his summer internship requirements. The conclusions to the study are as follows : e The average breadth of topics is 14 out of 25 where the most frequently discussed topics are work issues, family matters, personal goals, life in general, jokes or embarrassing situations, future plans, personal problems, economic issues, friends, political issues, superiors, likes and dislikes, relationships, and relatives. The following are considered intimate : sex, personal problems, personal needs, past issues, behavior, relationships, advice, family matters, personal goals, relatives, work issues, love & dating, and superiors. o The following traits are perceived by the respondents to make disclosing more comfortable : 1) approachability, 2) open-mindedness, 3) trustworthiness, 4) supportiveness, and 5) caring. e The measure of attitudes toward Ms. Imelda Deogracias’ therapeutic communicator traits is very high e The measure of perception held by the respondents on the therapeutic communicator traits as they perceive to show other employees is very high. o On roles, /improved self-understanding, satisfaction of personal needs, and accomplishment of personal goals are perceived to occur in the WHTP.