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Alliance in Family Relationships

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Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

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Name of Concept

Alliance in family relationships

Introduction

Alliance refers to the factors that allow clients to accept and engage in psychotherapy (Bordin 1979). This construct is the most robust predictor of psychotherapy outcome and has been investigated for several decades (Barber et al. 2000).

Theoretical Context for Concept

Early in the history of psychotherapy, Carl Rogers’ (1951) emphasis on unconditional positive regard made the relationship central to the achievement of therapeutic gains. Building off of Rogerian concepts, Bordin (1979) conceptualized alliance as consisting of three components.

Specifically, the client and therapist must (a) develop a trusting relationship (bond), (b) establish agreement on what the client wants to change (goals), and (c) obtain agreement on how to go about changing (tasks). Bordin’s framework served as the foundation for decades of theoretical and empirical work on alliance.

Description

Alliance in family relationships refers to a trusting...

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References

  • Barber, J. P., Connolly, M. B., Crits-Christoph, P., Gladis, L., & Siqueland, L. (2000). Alliance predicts patients’ outcome beyond in-treatment change in symptoms. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(6), 1027.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bordin, E. S. (1979). The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 16(3), 252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, G. S., Diamond, G. M., & Levy, S. A. (2014). Attachment-based family therapy for depressed adolescents. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pinsof, W. M., & Catherall, D. R. (1986). The integrative psychotherapy alliance: Family, couple and individual therapy scales. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 12, 137–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press.

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  • Safran, J. D., & Muran, J. C. (2000). Negotiating the therapeutic alliance: A relational treatment guide. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Family Intervention Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jody Russon

  2. Center for Family Intervention, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Maliha Ibrahim & Guy S. Diamond

Authors
  1. Jody Russon
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  2. Maliha Ibrahim
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  3. Guy S. Diamond
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jody Russon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay L. Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony L. Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Council for Relationships, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Heather Pederson Ph.D.

  2. Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL, USA

    Diana Semmelhack

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© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Russon, J., Ibrahim, M., Diamond, G.S. (2019). Alliance in Family Relationships. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_846

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