Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Alliance And Termination Status In Couple Therapy: A Comparison Of Methods For Assessing Discrepancies, Suzanne Bartle-Haring, Tatiana Glebova, Rashmi Gangamma, Erika Grafsky, Robin Delaney

Falk College Research Center

Much of the empirical data available about therapeutic alliance and its relationship to termination status come from individual psychotherapies. We know less about therapeutic alliance in couple therapy. A unique characteristic of alliance in couple or family therapy is the possibility of discrepancies in alliance between system members. In this study we sought to demonstrate three statistical techniques: standard deviations, the intraclass correlation to assess discrepancies in alliance over time during the initial stage of couple therapy, and the use of these various measures to predict termination status using a sample of 72 couples from a university-based training clinic. Differences …