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The Therapeutic Alliance from the Clients' Perspective: a Qualitative Approach

MacFarlane, Peter

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, Psychology (Arts and Sciences).
In spite of being a consistent predictor of outcome, measures of alliance only explain about 5% of the variance in therapy outcomes. One approach in elaborating on the understanding of the alliance has been to focus on the client's perspective which this thesis builds on. Grounded coding was applied to 53 client's open-ended responses to questions focusing on the development of the therapeutic alliance during their first two sessions of therapy. Open-ended responses to 52 workbooks designed to enhance client-therapist alliance were broken down into meaning-units (Rennie, 2002), and categorized according to the grounded theory method as developed by Strauss and Corbin (1998) and elaborated by Rennie (2006) and others. Clients' perspective of the developing alliance, in particular activities that strengthen the bond component, elaborated on recent findings related to clients' contribution to the alliance as well as recent attempts to elaborate types of alliance bonds. The present research further begins to shed light on the relationship between specific outcome-oriented techniques and their influence on the therapeutic alliance. The results begin to build a bridge between clients' responses and established theory.
Timothy M. Anderson, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Benjamin Ogles, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
John Garske, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
60 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • MacFarlane, P. (2009). The Therapeutic Alliance from the Clients' Perspective: a Qualitative Approach [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1227106093

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • MacFarlane, Peter. The Therapeutic Alliance from the Clients' Perspective: a Qualitative Approach. 2009. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1227106093.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • MacFarlane, Peter. "The Therapeutic Alliance from the Clients' Perspective: a Qualitative Approach." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1227106093

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)