The therapeutic alliance (Bordin, 1979) remains one of the most studied constructs in psychotherapy outcome research (Norcross & Lambert, 2019), and is a robust predictor of client outcome (Flückiger et al., 2018; 2020; Wampold & Imel, 2015). It has been established that therapists vary in their ability to build and maintain an effective alliance, which […]
It is rare when a collection of a single author’s papers is neither disjointed or repetitious. So, it was a particular delight to read “The Art of Bohart.” It is also a particularly apropos title. Although he acknowledges a keen understanding of the science of therapeutic approaches, Bohart argues that it is the artistry that […]
Given the unresolved nature of the Dodo Bird Verdict (de Felice et al., 2019), clarification of psychotherapy mechanisms remains important and may indicate which clients will respond to treatment (Goldfried et al., 2014), reduce theory-practice gaps (Dobson & Beshai, 2013), and provide insight into why some individuals in control groups show improvement above and beyond […]
For more than 20 years, our attachment research teams at Western Michigan University (WMU) have been using Bowlby’s attachment theory to examine important psychotherapy process and outcome variables. What have we found? Generally speaking, client and therapist attachment do matter in psychotherapy—often times, in many of the same ways that John Bowlby would have predicted. […]
Abstract The therapeutic relationship and responsiveness/treatment adaptations rightfully occupy a prominent, evidence-based place in any guidelines for the psychological treatment of trauma. In this light, we critique the misguided efforts of the American Psychological Association’s (APA, 2017) Clinical Practice Guideline on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults to advance a biomedical model for psychotherapy and thus […]
Background Thousands of clinical trials and naturalistic studies have now been conducted on the effects of psychotherapy. Reviews of this research have shown that about 75% of those who enter treatment in clinical trials show some benefit (Lambert, 2013). This finding generalizes across a wide range of disorders except for severe biologically based disturbances (e.g., […]
Due to changes in demographics in the United States, counselors and therapists are likely to serve clients who have a culturally diverse background. Data from the 2010 United States (U.S.) Census indicated that foreign-born individuals represented 13.3% of the U.S. population, some 42.3 million people (Colby & Ortman, 2014). In 2014, the U.S. population by […]
Introduction Despite many distinguishing characteristics of the therapeutic relationship, aspects of the dialogue between a therapist and a client can sometimes resemble everyday conversations. Namely, individuals in therapy may occasionally engage in the normative human behavior of lying. Blanchard and Farber (2016) found that 93% of clients report lying or otherwise being dishonest to their […]
Abstract The alliance continues to be one of the most investigated variables related to success in psychotherapy irrespective of theoretical orientation. We define and illustrate the alliance (also conceptualized as therapeutic alliance, helping alliance, or working alliance) and then present a meta-analysis of 295 independent studies that covered more than 30,000 patients (published between 1978 […]