The Relationship between Psychotherapist Personality and Therapeutic Alliance

<p>Time-limited effective psychotherapy is a topic that is frequently addressed in clinical therapy research. Though a wide range of therapeutic factors, expectancy effects, techniques, and extratherapeutic have all been demonstrated to be related to outcome, researchers have consistently identified the therapeutic alliance as one of the strongest factors in predicting psychotherapy outcomes. Researchers are beginning to measure the effectiveness of therapy by evaluating improvements in outcome measures, and client reported therapeutic alliance. Researchers have recently began investigating the common personality profiles among psychotherapists, and have hypothesized that there is a relationship between psychotherapist personality and therapeutic alliance. The goal of this research was to determine if the relationship between psychotherapist personality traits and therapeutic alliance existed and whether a therapeutic alliance focused intervention would improve client reported therapeutic alliance. Researchers recruited pre-licensed graduate level psychotherapists from community-based outpatient clinics. A total of 50 psychotherapists participated by completing a NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI).Clients of these therapists were also asked to complete a Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form (WAI-S) and an Outcome Rating Scale (ORS). Results indicated that psychotherapists, in general, have lower levels of Neuroticism, and higher levels of Openness and Agreeableness, compared to community normative data. The researchers found that Agreeableness played a significant role in client-reported therapeutic alliance. Psychotherapists who had the highest ratings of therapeutic alliance had significantly higher scores on the Agreeableness scale compared to psychotherapists who had the lowest ratings of therapeutic alliance. Researchers were unable to statistically demonstrate that therapeutic alliance focused interventions were related to higher ratings of therapeutic alliance or psychotherapy outcomes. However, reports from participants suggest that additional therapeutic alliance focused interventions are beneficial for individuals providing direct service to clients and for supervisors.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year

2018

Author dc:creator

• Finlay, Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Vermeersch, David A.
• Boyd, Kendal
• Brenner, Colleen
• Davis, John

• Clinical Psychology
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Psychotherapists; Personality
• Time-limited Effective Psychotherapy; Therapeutic Alliance; Outcomes

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/519

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1510