title: Alliance patterns over the course of short-term dynamic psychotherapy: the shape of productive relationships.
abstract: The shape of alliance processes over the course of psychotherapy has already been studied in several process-outcome studies on very brief psychotherapy. The present study applies the shape-of-change methodology to short-term dynamic psychotherapies and complements this method with hierarchical linear modeling. A total of 50 psychotherapies of up to 40 sessions were included. Alliance was measured at the end of each session. The results indicate that a linear progression model is most adequate. Three main patterns were found: stable, linear, and quadratic growth. The linear growth pattern, along with the slope parameter, was related to treatment outcome. This study sheds additional light on alliance process research, underscores the importance of linear alliance progression for outcome, and also fosters a better understanding of its limitations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, Institute for Psychotherapy, Bâtiment des Cèdres, Site de Cery, CH-1008 Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland. ueli.kramer@chuv.ch
authors.forename: Ueli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: de Roten
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Beretta
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Jean-Nicolas
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Despland
mesh_terms: D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult