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Alliance discrepancies in home‐based family treatment: occurrence, development and the therapist’s perspective
Author(s) -
Welmersvan de Poll M.J.,
Stams G.J.J.M.,
Akker A.L. van den,
Overbeek G.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6427.12309
Subject(s) - alliance , perspective (graphical) , psychology , family therapy , family member , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , developmental psychology , medicine , family medicine , artificial intelligence , political science , computer science , law
In family treatment, building and evaluating multiple alliances with family members is complex. We investigated the occurrence and development of discrepancies between therapists' alliances with different family members, and therapists’ evaluation of these multiple alliances and discrepancies. Participants were 92 parents and 61 children and adolescents from 61 families receiving home‐based family treatment. Family members, therapists, and observers reported early and mid‐treatment alliance. We found significant discrepancies, with strongest alliances with mothers, followed by fathers, and then youths. Differences became smaller during treatment. Therapist‐reports yielded similar discrepancies as compared to client self‐reports and observer‐reports. At T1, the correlation between therapist‐ and client self‐reports was moderate and significant for alliances with mothers, but insignificant for alliances with fathers and youths. At T2, these correlations were large for alliances with mothers and fathers, but not for youths. Our findings demonstrate that therapists have stronger alliances and are more congruent in their alliance perspective with parents (especially mothers) versus youths. Practitioner points Our findings demonstrate that in family treatment, differences in alliances between therapists and family members are the rule rather than the exception In family treatment therapists tend to have stronger alliances and be more congruent in their alliance perspective with parents (especially mothers) than with children and adolescents Awareness that building alliances with some family members demands an extra effort might enhance the process of building and balancing multiple alliances in family treatment Therapists could seek family members’ feedback on the alliance to gain a more shared perspective, paying particular attention to young people’s feedback