The Impact of Clients’ and Therapists’ Characteristics on Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome

Authors: Tschuschke V*, Koemeda M and Crameri A

Volume 5, Issue 4

Abstract

This article investigates distances in the therapeutic alliance experiences of therapists’ and their clients’ across the durations of the psychotherapeutic treatments in a naturalistic study. We looked at the working alliances from different vantage points: rupture, repair of ruptures, distances in the alliance impressions of both clients and therapists, and their correlation with treatment outcome. The only predictive variable of alliance ruptures and the subsequently premature ending of the treatments that we found was the inability of therapists to bond sufficiently with their clients regarding a sustainable working atmosphere. Although therapists’ degree of effectiveness, clients’ psychological burden at treatment entry and the quality of the therapeutic alliance were important with regard to treatment outcome in previous studies of our sample, the only predictive variable of the combination alliance rupture/premature termination of the treatments was the inability of therapists to attune to their clients’ level of alliance experience. The paper discusses the possible role of the quality of therapists’ attachment styles as a crucial variable regarding successful therapeutic treatments.

Keywords: Therapeutic alliance; Alliance rupture; Alliance repair; Therapist-client agreement

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