Emotional intelligence, reflective practice and therapeutic relationship in nursing“Developing a therapeutic relationship with the healthcare user requires the nurse to be self-reflective. The reflective process concludes by welcoming insights from a variety of sources that serve to change practitioners' awareness” (Taylor, 2006). For starters, self-awareness means having a clear sense of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, and emotions. . Self-awareness allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses towards them in the moment. In order for nurses to empathize with their patients and treat them with compassion, they must be self-aware. When nurses are self-aware, they are able to positively change their attitude and actions to better understand how different people treat them, thus improving the nurse-patient relationship. Relationships are easy as long as there is no emotional turmoil. Therefore, being self-aware is important for any healthcare professional who needs to manage their cognitive, affective, and behavioral self to effectively engage in the therapeutic relationship (Taylor, 2006). Self-awareness is important because it helps us build a therapeutic relationship. better understanding of ourselves. This helps nurses become empowered to make changes and develop their areas of strength. Self-awareness is important for an individual health consumer. It helps us control our emotions. It's not bad to express our emotions, but it has its times and ways to be done. Emotions also lead to many accidents like suicide and unwanted pregnancies. Secondly, self-awareness helps a person to control anger and live a happy life, as living a stressful life invites many diseases… middle of paper… d Schuster). Bradberry, T and Greaves, J. (2005) “Heartless Bosses”. The Harvard Business Review.Bridge, W. & Macleod Clark, J. (2008) communication in nursing. Chichester: Wiley.Chambers, M. (1998). Interpersonal mental health nursing: Research issues and challenges. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: 2003-211. Cited in Cutcliffe, J. & Mckenna, H. (2005). The essential concepts of nursing care. London: Churchill Livingstone.Gustafsson, C. & Fagerberg, I. (2007). Reflective practice in nursing: Embedded hypotheses in qualitative studies. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 13, 151-160. Oelofsen, N. (2012). Developing reflective practice: a guide for health and social care students and professionals. Banbury: Lantern Publishing.Taylor, B. (2006). Reflective practice: a guide for nurses and midwives. Maidenhead: Open University Press.