title: The therapeutic alliance in psychodynamic-interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
abstract: The quality of the therapeutic alliance was compared in sessions of psychodynamic-interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the alliance's relationship to various session impacts was investigated. As part of the Sheffield Psychotherapy Project 2 (D. A. Shapiro, M. Barkham, A. Rees, G. E. Hardy, S. Reynolds, & M. Startup, 1994), 57 clients diagnosed with major depression received 16 sessions of either psychodynamic-interpersonal or cognitive-behavioral therapy. Coders used the Working Alliance Inventory to rate 1 high-impact and 1 low-impact session from each client. Results indicated significantly greater alliance scores for cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions on the whole. Also, for the samples as a whole, high-impact sessions were characterized by higher alliance scores than those for low-impact sessions, and alliance was positively related to therapists' ratings of session depth and smoothness and to clients' ratings of mood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, White Plains 10605, USA.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Raue
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Goldfried
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barkham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000592:standards; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D019370:Observation; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000592:standards; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies