Self-healing and the patient-centered therapeutic relationship (exploratory narrative review)

This narrative review aims to answer the following question: How does the clinical approach of patient-centered care (PCC) help to encourage self-healing as a psychophysiological process available to everyone? In the clinical PCC process, the therapeutic relationship takes into account the patient’s perspective in a global biopsychosocial approach that aims to find common ground for shared decision making. Its therapeutic effect, like that of self-healing, can be partly explained by the non-specific placebo effect. This effect is the result of operant conditioning on a person whose beliefs, expectations, and mindset are favorable. In the context of a therapeutic alliance and a trusting relationship with a professional, it influences and activates psychophysiological processes that are found in self-healing. Based on an exploratory narrative literature review, the links between self-healing, non-specific placebo effect, and the specific effect of the therapeutic relationship are addressed.