At ECNP 2022, Dr Charlotte Emborg sat down to chat about how barriers to functional recovery for patients with schizophrenia may include cognitive issues, substance abuse and life events. As such, an ongoing therapeutic alliance is needed between the patient and their healthcare team. Treatment goals include adherence to medication. To enable this, the patient’s values and level of disease insight need to be taken into account to help the patient themselves feel motivated to continue with their medication. The therapeutic alliance should be built up and maintained over a number of years to help the patient deal with challenges as they occur throughout their life. This will especially help during times of psychosis, if they occur.