Without more context, it's hard to say, but it sounds like the patient/client is expressing the trauma through constant 'threats' (challenges might be better) to the therapeutic setting/context, for example, not being able to come to a session, arriving late, not wanting to speak once there, needing to leave early, etc.

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Note added at 29 mins (2012-09-11 19:10:28 GMT)
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A definition: "Encuadre terapéutico: La relación terapéutica requiere un encuadre específico. Se refiere al conjunto de reglas fijadas por el terapeuta para hacer viable la psicoterapia. Incluye: Honorarios. Duración y frecuencia de las sesiones. Lugar donde se realizan. Vacaciones. Cualquier otro detalle que afecte al desarrollo de la psicoterapia. El encuadre terapéutico contribuye a alejar la confusión de roles."
(http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Relacion-Terapeutica/392... )

Therapeutic conditions might be another possibility, but from my experience of friends who have become therapists, they prefer to talk in terms of the setting or context rather than anything that smacks of rules.