Abstract

Couple therapy is successful in treating relationship distress. However, couple therapy does not benefit everyone. Consequently, it is important to study factors that predict therapeutic success. One such factor is what predicts the development of the therapeutic alliance in couple therapy. The purpose of this study was to code therapist behaviors, therapist warmth, empathy, presence, validation, collaboration, and technique factors (systemically-based techniques and session structure), in the first session of couple therapy to examine their ability to predict two aspects of the therapeutic alliance, between- and within-alliance, after the session for males and females. The hypotheses were tested utilizing multiple one-way ANOVAs. Results indicated that none of the therapist variables predicted either of the outcome alliance variables for males or females. More research needs to be done to find what therapist behaviors predict the therapeutic alliance.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Marriage and Family Therapy

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/