Myrna L Friedlander

• PhD
• Professor at University at Albany, State University of New York

We investigated insecure attachment in relation to how actively romantic partners expect to participate in couple therapy (role expectations for self and partner) and, consequently, how much they expect to benefit from doing so (outcome expectations). Specifically, we used the mediated actor–partner interdependence model (Ledermann et al., 2011) wi...

In this study, we identified therapist responses preceding clients’ engagement in productive narrative-emotion shifts in four successful cases of emotion-focused therapy for trauma (EFTT; Paivio & Angus, 2017). Twelve sessions were selected across three phases of EFTT from Paivio et al.’s (2010) clinical trial based on client recovery data and ther...

We sampled routinely collected measures of role and outcome expectations, the expanded therapeutic alliance, and relationship satisfaction completed by 253 heterosexual couples seen by 35 therapists in the Marriage and Family Research Practice Network (Johnson et al., 2017) and investigated these variables as interdependent dyadic processes using t...

In this study, we investigated the association between clients' initial outcome expectations and their subsequent perceptions of the expanded therapeutic alliance. Romantic partners ( N = 252) who received at least four sessions of systemic couple therapy from thirty‐one therapists from the Marriage and Family Therapy Practice Research Network (Joh...

Due to logistical and financial barriers that keep many distressed couples from seeking psychotherapy, online relationship education is a more accessible alternative. In the decade since a web-based program showed equivalent effectiveness to traditional marriage education (Duncan et al., 2009), several fully online programs have been developed and...

In designing this study, we aimed to obtain a rich, phenomenological understanding of the experiences of couple and family therapists who transitioned their practice to telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve experienced therapists from the U.S., Spain and Australia were interviewed in depth about their experiences of this transition, parti...

Research showing that caregivers', adolescents' and therapists' perceptions of the therapeutic alliance become more similar over time has not examined conceptual models, like emotional contagion and interdependence, that are theorized to account for this convergence. Objective: We modeled codevelopment in systemic family therapy to examine mutual i...

Now that it has become abundantly clear that family mem-bers’ perceptions and behavioral manifestations of theexpanded therapeutic alliance significantly predict clinicalprogress and effectiveness, researchers are being called uponto advance our knowledge of this critically important com-mon factor by attending to three issues: (1) how alliancesdev...

To broaden our understanding of a split alliance in family therapy, we investigated the frequencies and correlates of sessions in which therapists, youth, and caregivers reported markedly different perceptions of the alliance. The sample consisted of 156 Spanish families who received Alliance Empowerment Family Therapy (Escudero, Adolescentes y fam...

We tested the process of change in Alliance Empowerment Family Therapy (AEFT; Escudero, 2013), a systemic, team-based approach for treating child welfare involved families. Since building and balancing strong personal and within-family therapeutic alliances are crucial for motivating and sustaining change in these multistressed, overburdened famili...

We designed this theory-building study to discover how split alliances are manifested in couple therapy. From an archival database, we selected four cases in which the partners’ self-reported alliances with the therapist were highly discrepant. An intensive analysis of each session was conducted to model the underlying therapeutic system based on i...

To investigate how expert supervisors focus on various aspects of relationships and how commonly the relational discussions occur in theoretically diverse approaches to supervision, we operationalized five relational supervisory behaviors (Focus on the Therapeutic Relationship, Focus on the Supervisory Alliance, Exploration of Feelings, Focus on Co...

With the efficacy of couple therapy no longer in doubt, researchers are seeking to identify client characteristics that explain variability in retention and outcomes. We examined the link between two self‐reported characteristics, attachment insecurity and treatment expectations (for self, partner, and outcome), in a Mechanical Turk sample of 182 a...

Although health service psychology programs recognize the need for trainees to gain multicultural competencies by working directly with diverse populations, doing so within the constraints of an academic curriculum is challenging. We describe a team-based assignment for enhancing multicultural competencies in which students engage in consultation w...

Theoretically, securely attached adults view the world as safe and see their romantic partners as emotionally available, supportive, and non‐threatening. Little is known, however, about which relationship domains are most problematic for securely (versus insecurely) attached adults. To fill this gap, we asked 62 adults in committed relationships to...

We developed the System for Observing Medical Alliances (SOMA) to study relationships between medical providers and patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Based on literature in health psychology, medicine, and the psychotherapeutic alliance, the SOMA operationalizes three medical alliance dimensions: Engagement in the Consultation Pro...

Medically unexplained symptoms and/or syndromes (MUS) affect the health of 20% to 30% of patients seen in primary care. Optimally, treatment for these patients requires an interdisciplinary team consisting of both primary care and mental health providers. We propose that counseling psychologists may develop expertise to improve the care of patients...

This chapter reviews meta-analytic evidence for the alliance-outcome relation in couple and family therapy (CFT). The authors describe the unique features of CFT alliances and their measurement, followed by case descriptions. A meta-analysis of 48 studies ( N s = 2,568 families, 1,545 couples, and 491 effect sizes) found r = .297. In another analys...

Objective: In a secondary analysis of Friedlander et al.'s [(2018). “If those tears could talk, what would they say?” multi-method analysis of a corrective experience in brief dynamic therapy. Psychotherapy Research, 28, 217–234. doi:10.1080/10503307.2016.1184350] case study of Hanna Levenson’s Brief Dynamic Therapy over Time (from APA’s Psychother...

Psychotherapy Relationships That Work is the definitive, evidence-based book on the topic: Volume 1 contains 16 chapters that address what works in general and Volume 2 consists of 11 chapters that address what works for particular patients. Each chapter presents definitions, clinical examples, landmark studies, comprehensive meta-analyses, diversi...

This article summarizes the state of the science on couples' observable interactions since Gottman and Notarius's (2000) decade review on the topic. The literature ranges from communication studies during various developmental periods in romantic relationships to the relation of couple interactions to personal health, well-being, and stress, comorb...

Cambridge Core - Communications - The Cambridge Handbook of Group Interaction Analysis - edited by Elisabeth Brauner

This chapter describes the therapeutic challenges of addressing problems in parenting with overburdened single parents, with high-conflict separated or divorced couples, and with two-parent families where one parent is uninvolved with the children or is actively obstructive to the therapeutic process. The focus of the chapter is the use of specific...

In this introductory chapter we explain the perspective taken in this book, i.e., that regardless of their theoretical orientation, therapists need to purposefully balance their alliances with multiple family members in order to empower individuals, subsystems, and the couple or family unit for therapeutic gain. The more complex and resistant the f...

This final chapter sets the stage for a general strategy for navigating multiple therapeutic alliances in challenging therapeutic contexts. The chapter provides an operative framework for building and sustaining alliances; this framework is organized in three steps and described in a flow chart representing the process of intervention. The first st...

This chapter begins with a case example, the common situation of couples beginning therapy when one romantic partner, in this case the wife, has previously decided that if therapy does not “work” quickly to change her husband, she will leave him. Other situations are described, such as when one partner insists on engaging in therapy and the other p...

Perhaps one of the major challenges for creating a solid therapeutic relationship occurs when a child has experienced maltreatment (abuse, abandonment, or severe neglect), particularly when the maltreatment is at the hands of the child’s parents or other caregivers. In this chapter we consider the therapeutic context when there is “relational traum...

Multi-stressed families (those who are experiencing moderate to severe difficulties in social, personal, and financial areas) tend to find it difficult to engage in the therapeutic process, despite a pressing need for help. These families often come to therapy at the insistence of social services (especially child protective services) or family cou...

Adolescents are typically not self-referred, and their developmental stage is characterized by a surge in autonomy seeking, from adults in general and from parents in particular. Quite often, the family therapy context is initially experienced by the adolescent as belonging to the world of adults/parents, and, indeed, in many cases parents view all...

This practical breakthrough introduces a robust framework for family and couples therapy specifically designed for working with difficult, entrenched, and court-mandated situations. Using an original model (the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances, or SOFTA) suitable to therapists across theoretical lines, the authors detail special challe...

In this article, I explain and illustrate reflexivity in my research and practice, i.e. their reciprocal influence on one another. In other words, not only has my clinical experience with couples and families influenced the nature of my research, but also the results of my (and others’) change process studies have influenced the way I work with dis...

We analyzed master theorist/therapist Hanna Levenson's six-session work with "Ann" in American Psychological Association's Theories of Psychotherapy video series to determine if and how this client had a corrective experience in Brief Dynamic Therapy. First, we identified indicators of a corrective experience in the therapist's and client's own wor...

Observation of live or video-recorded sessions is the preferred method for supervisors to evaluate and improve counselor trainees' clinical skills. This chapter describes a software technology for use in counselor training to draw supervisors' and supervisees' attention to specific behaviors and interactions that reflect the working alliance in cou...

Objective: In two investigations, we identified explicitly relational supervision strategies and examined whether use of these strategies was associated with perceptions of the supervisory alliance and evaluations of the supervisor. Method: First, ratings by nine supervision researchers identified five clearly relational in-session strategies (f...

Based on the diathesis–stress model of anxiety, this study examined the contributions of cultural processes, perceived racial discrimination, and personality traits to social anxiety among Chinese immigrants. Further guided by the theory of intergroup anxiety, this study also adopted a context-specific approach to distinguish between participants’...

Objective: In this article we describe and assess the state of the science on systemic psychotherapies. In the quarter century since the first issue of Psychotherapy Research was published, considerable progress has been made. There is an increasingly solid evidence base for systemic treatments, which includes a wide range of approaches to working...

We explored how the therapeutic alliance contributed to retention in Brief Strategic Family Therapy by analyzing videotapes of eight-first sessions in which four therapists worked with one family that stayed in treatment and one family that dropped out. Although behavioral exchange patterns between clients and therapists did not differ by retention...

Inasmuch as therapist responsiveness is the crucial ingredient in psychotherapy success, teaching supervisees to be optimally responsive to their clients is the primary function of supervision. Responsive supervision is particularly critical when a trainee experiences a faltering or problematic working alliance with a client. In this article, I des...

Only in working conjointly with couples and families do therapists literally witness clients struggling to improve their most intimate relationships. In writing this article, we realized that, in true systemic fashion, not only have many of our clients benefited from working with us, but also we have learned some invaluable lessons from them. Indee...

We applied Hwang’s (2006a) acculturative family distancing (AFD) theory to Taiwanese “parachute kids,” who had immigrated to the United States or Canada as unaccompanied minors and remained in North American as adults. It was hypothesized that each dimension of AFD—communication breakdown and cultural value incongruence—would uniquely predict confl...

The efficacy, and to a lesser extent, effectiveness, of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders has been demonstrated, but whether manualized treatments work in a group format in community settings is less established. We investigated the predictors of retention and outcome in 26 groups (11 Generalized Anxiety Disorder,...

Little is known about long-term patients for whom there is no anticipated endpoint to treatment. In this qualitative case study, we used a focus group methodology to understand how psychotherapists at a community mental health clinic work with low-income adult patients who are seen indefinitely. Narrative themes that emerged from the focus group di...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a framework for understanding how psychology educators and trainers can enhance gender competencies. The constructs of sex and gender are discussed, with a recognition that the literature has used these constructs in a confounding manner. Consistent with the multicultural literature, gender competence is de...

To bridge the science–practice gap, the APA Presidential Task Force endorsed the publication of evidence-based case studies, but to date, there have been few such investigations of conjoint family therapy. To fill this gap, we studied a successful case of treatment-as-usual in a community agency. Owing to the complexity of the working alliance in c...

Based on a transtheoretical definition of corrective experience (CE), the authors interviewed 25 adults who could identify a pivotal event or relationship they had experienced, at any point in their lifetime, as positively transformative. The narratives show that the CEs described by participants often had a negative precipitant or took place durin...

The focus of this article is the increasingly narrow range of therapeutic orientations represented in clinical psychology graduate training programs, particularly within the most research‐oriented programs. Data on the self‐reported therapeutic orientations of faculty at “clinical science” Ph.D. programs, Ph.D. programs at comprehensive universitie...

Eleven Christian former clients were sampled to uncover factors contributing to positive versus negative experiences in secular psychotherapy. The qualitative results indicated that although many participants felt hesitant to discuss their faith due to uncertainty about their therapists' reactions, positive experiences were reportedly facilitated b...

Sequential analyses examined associations between the working alliance and therapist-adolescent communication patterns in 10 Spanish cases of brief conjoint family therapy. Early sessions with strong versus problematic alliances, rated by observers, were selected for coding of relational control communication patterns. No differences were found in...

In this article, we introduce a methodology for studying alliance rupture and repair in conjoint family therapy. Using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (Friedlander, Escudero, & Heatherington, 2006), we identified rupture markers and repair interventions in a session with a single mother and her 16-year-old "rebellious" daughter. T...

One explanation for the repeated finding of similar client outcomes across therapy approaches is that successful therapists shift their style to be responsive to clients’ emerging needs. Following this reasoning, the primary educational function of supervision is to teach entry-level therapists to be maximally attuned and responsive to clients. The...

After 5 years of conceptualizing, investigating, and writing about corrective experiences (CEs), we (the authors of this chapter) met to talk about what we learned. In this chapter, we summarize our joint understanding of (a) the definition of CEs; (b) the contexts in which CEs occur; (c) client, therapist, and external factors that facilitate CEs;...

The conceptual underpinnings, fundamental assumptions, and interventions used in couple and family therapy (CFT) are consistent with counseling psychology's traditional emphasis on normative development and person- environment fit, and its focus on clients' problems in living, resilience, and cultural context rather than psychiatric diagnoses. In t...

This investigation tested the psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF; Fisher and Farina [Journal of College Student Development, 36, 368–373, 1995]) in a sample of 338 Mainland Chinese college students. Using back-translation, the ATSPPH-SF was translated into simplified C...

The concept of corrective emotional experience, originally formulated by psychoanalysts Alexander and French (1946), has been redefined by contemporary researchers to be theoretically nonspecific, that is, as "coming to understand or experience an event or relationship in a different or unexpected way" (Castonguay & Hill, 2011). Using postsession q...

Informed by a trans-theoretical model of the therapeutic alliance in conjoint family therapy, this exploratory study was the initial stage in a task analysis of critical shifts in adolescent engagement. Specifically, we compared sessions in which a resistant adolescent either did or did not shift from negative to positive engagement during the sess...

Predictions of family therapy outcome consistently vary depending on which client rates the alliance. We used the actor-partner interdependence model (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) to test the interdependence of parents' and adolescents' ratings of alliance, session depth/value, and improvement-so-far after Sessions 3, 6, and 9. Initial analyses foun...

A suspected decline in published counseling-related research in The Counseling Psychologist ( TCP) and the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) was investigated through content analyses of the two journals from 1979 to 2008. A marked decline in counseling-related research may signify a shift in emphasis away from counseling as the most fundamenta...

Three counseling psychology colleagues (Lichtenberg, 2011; Mallinckrodt, 2011; Murdock, 2011 [all this issue]) provide differing perspectives about the findings from our target article (Scheel et al., 2011) of the decline of published counseling-related research in our major journals. In this rejoinder we respond to each author’s viewpoints concern...

In this article, we describe a specific technology for training/supervision and research on the working alliance in either individual or couple/family therapy. The technology is based on the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA; Friedlander, Escudero, & Heatherington, 2006), which contains four conceptual dimensions (Engagement in t...

Couple and family therapy (CFT) is challenging because multiple interacting working alliances develop simultaneously and are heavily influenced by preexisting family dynamics. An original meta-analysis of 24 published CFT alliance-retention/outcome studies (k = 17 family and 7 couple studies; N = 1,416 clients) showed a weighted aggregate r = .26,...

The authors conducted 3 studies to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the American Jewish Identity Scales (AJIS), a brief self-report measure that assesses cultural identification and religious identification. Study 1 assessed the content validity of the item pool using an expert panel. In Study 2, 1,884 Jewish adults completed...

To be responsive to clients’ evaluations of the unfolding therapy process, therapists must first accurately “read” client behavior, a particularly challenging task in conjoint family therapy. In this study, the authors compared client behavior in 28 sessions that one family member and the therapist concurred, on the Session Evaluation Questionnaire...

Reports an error in "The Differentiation of Self Inventory: Development and initial validation" by Elizabeth A. Skowron and Myrna L. Friedlander (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1998[Jul], Vol 45[3], 235-246). In the January 1998 edition of the Journal of Counseling Psychology (Volume 45, Number 3, p. 246), the key to the Appendix was printed inc...

The authors assessed burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary trauma symptoms, and compassion satisfaction in relation to experienced therapists’ perceptions of the working alliance. Participants, 106 specialists in the treatment of clients who commit sexual abuse, completed the Working Alliance Inventory—Short Form (T. J. Tracey & A. M. Kokotovic, 1...

Split alliances (within-family differences in the emotional bond with the therapist) were studied in 19 U.S. and 21 Spanish families using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA; Friedlander, Escudero, & Heatherington, 2006). Examining individual family members' scores on the corresponding self-report and observational Emotional C...

Positive and negative alliance-related behaviours of thirty-seven families seen in brief family therapy were rated from videotapes using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (Friedlander et al., 2006b). Positive associations were found between in-session behaviour and participants' perceptions of the alliance and improvement so far bot...

The authors examined differentiation of self, a multidimensional construct in Murray Bowen's (1976, 1978) family systems theory, as a predictor of clients' perceptions of the therapeutic alliance. Adult clients (N=38) in brief family therapy completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised (Skowron Schmitt, 2003) during prescreening and the...

To identify alliance-related behavior patterns in more and less successful family therapy, the authors intensively analyzed two cases with highly discrepant outcomes. Both families were seen by the same experienced clinician. Results showed that participants' perceptions of the alliance, session impact, and improvement at three points in time were...

The authors focused on 2 unique aspects of the alliance in conjoint therapy: feeling safe in the therapeutic context with other family members and the family's shared sense of purpose about treatment (i.e., productive within-family collaboration). Low-income, multiproblem families were seen in a community clinic by therapists with varying theoretic...

The authors investigated the acculturation of 108 Jewish young adults who had immigrated to the United States between the ages of 9 and 21 from the former Soviet Union as a function of differentiation of self (M. Bowen, 1978) and acculturative stress. One aspect of differentiation, the ability to take an “I-position” with others, uniquely predicted...

The introduction of the concept of the therapeutic alliance to the family literature has considerable heuristic value. We undertook a study of the psychometric properties of the Couple and Family Therapy Alliance Scales (IPAS) (Pinsof & Catherall, 1986), two theoretically derived and systemically based measures of the alliance. Outpatient couple an...

This study concerned the extent to which systemic and nonsystemic clinicians differ in their diagnostic processes. Experienced therapists, identified either with a family systems or a psychodynamic orientation, viewed a stimulus film of a family session and individual interviews with each parent and identified patient. Subjects listed “clinically r...

The structural and Milan systemic approaches were compared in order to determine the extent to which their major proponents behave in ways that are consistent with theory. The focus was on interpersonal control dynamics between therapist and family system. Three published transcripts of each treatment were intensively studied using the Family Relat...

Family therapy theory, practice, and research across many orientations are concerned with multiperson interactional phenomena such as intercepts, disconfirmations, and indirect communications. This study reports a successful criterion validity test of the rules for coding these triadic features in the Family Relational Communication Control Coding...

To deepen our understanding of the therapeutic alliance in conjoint treatment, we interviewed clients in four families about their individual, private experience of the alliance after an early session. These qualitative data were triangulated with family members' scores on Pinsof's Family Therapy Alliance Scale-Revised and observational ratings of...