<p>Psychiatric special education schools serving students with psychiatric disorders present a distinct educational context in which teachers face intense emotional and professional demands, requiring the integration of academic instruction with ongoing emotional support. Grounded in the Relational Competence Model (RCM), this qualitative study explores the lived experiences of 15 special education teachers in psychiatric special education schools. Using semi-structured interviews, the study examined how teachers make sense of their emotional labor, relational work, and professional responsibilities in these complex settings. Three themes emerged from the analysis. First, teachers drew on socio-emotional competence to interpret challenging behaviors as expressions of psychological distress rather than deliberate defiance, a process that supported their professional growth. Second, teachers relied heavily on informal, family-like peer networks, while formal institutional support systems were often perceived as insufficient. Third, relational competence served as the central organizing principle of practice, with teachers emphasizing attunement and strengths-based approaches to sustain working alliances with students. Together, the findings illustrate how relational competence underpins teachers’ ability to integrate emotional and instructional roles in psychiatric special education settings and underscore its importance as a core dimension of their everyday professional practice.</p>