The relationship is the therapy whilst the objectives are in helping the client to self-actualisation by creating the right conditions so that values and positive self-regard can be achieved. Person-centred counselling is very much about the relationship between the client and their counsellor more so than psychodynamic and CBT therapy.
Sigmund Freud is described as the founder of Psychodynamic theory and although today counselling theories have moved on considerably, Freud's theories are very much still the backbone of the psychodynamic theory. .
The psychodynamic counselling theory is one which places emphasis on the past as well as the present experiences and tries to link the past with the present, believing that behaviour is deeply influenced by unconscious thoughts, impulses and desires. A counsellor will try to reach the unconscious mind with the client who will describe memories that are painful, dramatic or too shameful and often unacceptable to us and so will repress them, but unconsciously these events will influence an individual's adult experiences. .
Therapists who engage in psychodynamic theory are neutral and detached to their clients and this is because the relationship between counsellor and client can go on for months and sometimes years and it also assures the therapist that any feelings from the client towards them is not caused by anything that the therapist may have done and ensures that the client is not able to project or transfer material onto the therapist which the therapist can then interpret. Unlike the person-centred approach therapy sessions, it would be unsuitable for a psychodynamic therapist to share much of their own feelings or their own lives with their client and the therapist would never interpret for a client.
The view of a client undergoing therapy from the psychodynamic theory would be their behaviour as adults having a direct connection to early relationships causing a conflict to occur within themselves.