You’ve already heard that the therapeutic alliance is important to client outcomes, but does anyone actually know why? We dig into the research to figure out if ruptures can be a good thing (yes!), what clients and therapists should know about the therapeutic alliance, and why this topic has been fervently researched over the last half-century.

Thank you for listening. To support the show and receive access to regular bonus episodes, check out the Very Bad Therapy Patreon community. Today’s episode is sponsored by Mental Health Match.

Show Notes:

• Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You

• The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance.

• Therapeutic alliance (Wikipedia)

• Studying psychotherapy using the one-with-many design: The therapeutic alliance as an exemplar.

• What is the Therapeutic Alliance and Why is it Important?

• The Alliance in Adult Psychotherapy: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis

• Current concepts of transference.

• Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome of Psychotherapy: Historical Excursus, Measurements, and Prospects for Research

• Therapeutic alliance rupture as therapy event for empirical investigation

• The development and decay of the working alliance during time-limited counseling.

• Patterns of working alliance development: A typology of client’s working alliance ratings.

• Clients’ and Therapists’ Views of the Therapeutic Alliance: Similarities, Differences and Relationship to Therapy Outcome

• The Therapeutic Alliance: The Fundamental Element of Psychotherapy

• Therapeutic Alliance Ruptures

• Alliance rupture repair: A meta-analysis.