The DOI matches its Crossref record; 124 of the 126 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Research on the alliance: Knowledge in search of a theory
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review paper is to summarize the challenges facing research on the alliance now and going forward. The review begins with a brief overview of the development of the concept of the alliance in historical context. METHOD: A summary of what has been accomplished both within the psychotherapy research community and in other professions is presented. Current challenges facing this line of research are identified, including the existence of a wide range of operational definitions that results in a diffusion of the identity of the alliance concept. It is argued that the current situation generates risks to incremental growth in several lines of research. CONCLUSIONS: A case is made that a lack of clarity regarding how several variables within the broader category of therapeutic relationships fit together, overlap, or complement each other is also potentially problematic. Efforts to resolve the lack of a consensual definition are reviewed, and in conclusion, it is argued that a resumption of a conversation about the relationship in the helping context in general, and the alliance in particular, should be resumed.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Alliance is considered a generic common factor, with meaning and usefulness expected to be preserved across theoretical orientations [2] and evidence suggests that a range of technology-based interventions can facilitate alliance [36].”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
1 retracted
Kivlighan, D. M., Kline, K. V., Gelso, C. J., & Hill, C. E. (2017) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037/cou0000216 · Cited by 30
RetractedThe Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
Freud, S. (1953) · Cited by 17,730
The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance.
Bordin, E. S. (1979) · Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice · doi:10.1037/h0085885 · Cited by 5,238
Meany, J. O., Rogers, C. R., Dorfman, E., Gordon, T., & Hobbes, N. (1951) · The American Catholic Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/3707825 · Cited by 4,192
Relation of the therapeutic alliance with outcome and other variables: a meta-analytic review
Martin, D. J., Garske, J. P., & Davis, M. K. (2000) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-006x.68.3.438 · Cited by 3,355
Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition
Masserman, J. H. (1958) · Archives of Neurology And Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1958.02340090135025 · Cited by 3,087
Defining empirically supported therapies.
Chambless, D. L., & Hollon, S. D. (1998) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.66.1.7 · Cited by 3,067 · cited 1×
“From this perspective, it was suggested that psychotherapy research ought to follow the example of medicine and seek to find evidence for specific treatments that are efficacious in treating specific symptoms (Chambless & Holon, 1998).”
BackgroundRelation between working alliance and outcome in psychotherapy: A meta-analysis
Horvath, A. O., & Symonds, B. D. (1991) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-0167.38.2.139 · Cited by 2,673
Self-citationMeta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies.
Smith, M. L., & Glass, G. V. (1977) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.32.9.752 · Cited by 2,154
Alliance in individual psychotherapy
Horvath, A. O., Del Re, A. C., Flückiger, C., & Symonds, D. (2011) · Psychotherapy · doi:10.1037/a0022186 · Cited by 2,072 · cited 3×
“…the alliance and outcome in different populations; each found the diversity of the primary studies underlying the analysis about 50% greater than if the spread in the outcomes were due to just “normal” random variability (Friedlander, Escudero, Heatherington, & Diamond, 2011; Horvath et al., 2011).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 21
- Abend S., 2000, The therapeutic alliance, 1
- Bedi R. P., 2009, Canadian Journal of Counselling, 43, 150
- Bugental J. F. T., 2008, Existential-integrative psychotherapy: Guideposts to the core of practice, 165
- Fenton L. R., 2001, Journal of Psychotherapy Practice & Research, 10, 262
- Freud S., 1928, Revue Française de Psychanalyse, 2, 1
- Gaston L., 1994, The working alliance: Theory, research and practice, 85
- Hartley D. E., 1983, Empirical studies in analytic theories, 1
- Henry W. P., 1994, The working alliance: Theory, research and practice, 51
- Krause M., 2011, Clinica y Salud, 23, 267
- Lambert M. J., 2002, Psychotherapy relationships that work, 17
- Luborsky L., 1996, Journal of Psychotherapy Practice & Research, 5, 260
- 10.1037/0022-006X.68.3.438 · DOI · Paper page
- Muran J. C., 2010, The therapeutic alliance: An evidence-based guide to practice
- Norcross J. C., 2002, Psychotherapy relationships that work: Therapist contributions responsiveness to patients
- Orlinsky D. E., 1987, Journal of Integrative & Eclectic Psychotherapy, 6, 6
- 10.1017/CBO9780511490002 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-1-59745-444-5-9 · DOI
- Sterba R. F., 1934, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 115, 117
- Stiles W. B., 2017, Therapist effects and therapist effectiveness, 71
- Wampold B. E., 2001, The great psychotherapy debate
- Zetzel E. R., 1956, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 37, 369
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis
Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018) · Psychotherapy · doi:10.1037/pst0000172 · Cited by 1,763
“More research is also needed that examines the boundary conditions of the alliance measures and their interaction to interpersonal and general process indicators, such as empathy, the real relationship, and corrective experiences (Horvath, 2017).”
BackgroundSelf-citationYin, S., & Yu, Y. (2022) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132608 · Cited by 404
The alliance in mental health care: conceptualization, evidence and clinical applications
Wampold, B. E., & Flückiger, C. (2023) · World Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/wps.21035 · Cited by 261
Flückiger, C., Rubel, J., Del Re, A. C., Horvath, A. O., Wampold, B. E., Crits-Christoph, P., Atzil-Slonim, D., Compare, A., Falkenström, F., Ekeblad, A., et al. (2020) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/ccp0000594 · Cited by 180
“…meta-analytic synthesis of the overall association between the alliance assessed early in treatment and treatment outcome indicated that the early alliance predicted on average 5% of the variance in therapy outcomes including dropout rates (k 295; Flückiger, Del Re, Wampold, & Horvath, 2018).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationFlückiger, C., Re, A. C. D., Wlodasch, D., Horvath, A. O., Solomonov, N., & Wampold, B. E. (2020) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037/cou0000424 · Cited by 137
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Horvath, A. O.
- Affiliations
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Horvath, Adam O.
- ORCID
- Horvath, Adam O.
- Venue
- Psychotherapy Research
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-09-13
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 499-516
- ISSN
- 1050-3307 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-4381
- OpenAlex
- W2755354210
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 126
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 1.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychotherapy Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Simon Fraser University (90140)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling Practices and Supervision
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- therapeutic relationship, alliance theory, operational definitions, helping relationship
- MeSH terms
- Therapeutic Alliance, Humans, Psychological Theory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
