The development of the working alliance and its ability to predict outcome in emotion-focused therapy for social anxiety disorder

Gilad Adler, Ben Shahar, Tohar Dolev, Sigal Zilcha-Mano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The study focuses on the alliance of 12 patients receiving emotionfocused therapy for social anxiety. Anxiety symptoms and patient perception of the working alliance were examined weekly. The first eight sessions of each patient were coded for within- A nd between-sessions alliance levels (1008 segments were coded).At the sample level, the alliance shows linear development over time but high variability between individuals.More than half the patients showed alliance development consistent with the rupture-resolution pattern. Without accounting for the temporal relationship between alliance and symptoms, alliance significantly predicted symptoms across treatment. When we accounted for the temporal relationship between alliance and symptoms, we found that symptoms can predict alliance but alliance cannot predict symptoms.We obtained the same findings using patient-rated and coded alliance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)446-454
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Nervous and Mental Disease
Volume206
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Keywords

  • Alliance
  • Alliance-Outcome Association
  • Emotion-Focused Therapy
  • Rupture-Resolution Pattern
  • Social Anxiety Disorder

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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