Resistance in Psychotherapy, from Conceptualization to Therapeutic: A Review Study

Most of the theories consider the most critical problem in the course of psychotherapy to be the resolution of resistance and present similar concepts, meanings, and effects for its appearance; But most theorists differ widely both in the definition of the types of resistance and its supposed causes and in the methods of dealing with resistant patients. In this article, an attempt has been made to narrative review of the concept of resistance from the perspective of different psychological approaches and the therapeutic techniques proposed by these approaches, by searching for keywords related to the research topic in reliable databases such as Science Direct, Elsevier, Magiran, SID, Google Scholar, and PubMed, and reviewing the studies that were published between 1990-2022 and present the latest revisions in the field of how to challenge resistance. Articles in the form of summaries of essays, short reports, and without access to the full text of the article were excluded from the study. From 150 searched articles, 33 articles were selected and the concept of resistance and related interventions were examined from the perspective of psychoanalytical, cognitive-behavioral, social-psychological, humanistic, and short-term solution-oriented approaches. The results showed that this phenomenon is generally related to the personality characteristics and insights of clients, the structure and style of treatment, therapeutic relationships, therapeutic techniques, characteristics, and interpersonal attitudes of the therapist. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the concept of resistance, identify the threatening and predisposing factors of resistance and, if necessary, carry out appropriate interventions by specialists and therapists.