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Research Summary of the Therapeutic Relationship and Psychotherapy Outcome

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Lambert Michael at Brigham Young University
Lambert Michael
Dean E. Barley
Dean E. Barley
Dean E. Barley
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Abstract

Factors that influence client outcome can be divided into four areas: extratherapeutic factors, expectancy effects, specific therapy techniques, and common factors. Common factors such as empathy, warmth, and the therapeutic relationship have been shown to correlate more highly with client outcome than specialized treatment interventions. The common factors most frequently studied have been the person-centered facilitative conditions (empathy, warmth, congruence) and the therapeutic alliance. Decades of research indicate that the provision of therapy is an interpersonal process in which a main curative component is the nature of the therapeutic relationship. Clinicians must remember that this is the foundation of our efforts to help others. The improvement of psychotherapy may best be accomplished by learning to improve one's ability to relate to clients and tailoring that relationship to individual clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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... Working alliance, a therapeutic relationship that includes the bond between the patient and therapist, as well as the agreement on therapeutic tasks and goals (Bordin, 1979), has been one of those factors. Working alliance has been demonstrated repeatedly and again to be a strong predictor of patient recovery in psychotherapy; some have even proposed that it is the primary therapeutic element of psychotherapy (Baier et al., 2020;Dambi et al., 2023;Flückiger et al., 2018;Lambert & Barley, 2001). Working alliance between therapists and patients has been identified as one of those predictive factors in improvement of depressive symptoms in bCBT programs (Askjer & Mathiasen, 2021;Doukani et al., 2024;Bergman Nordgren et al., 2013;Ly et al., 2015;Vernmark et al., 2019), also mirroring the importance of therapeutic relationship in traditional psychotherapy (Horvath & Symonds, 1991). ...
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... The strong relationality and reciprocity that Rank propounded harmonizes with implications and results from modern psychotherapy research. We now have a significant consensus across psychodynamic, humanistic-existential, and cognitive behavioral schools that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is the most important factor for treatment efficacy (Campagne, 2014;Hubble et al., 1999;Kramer, in press;Kluft, 2002;Kullgard et al., 2022;Lambert & Barley, 2001;Norcross & Lambert, 2019;Ogrodniczuk et al., 2005;Okamoto et al., 2019;Wampold & Imel, 2015). Relation itself accounts for about one third of treatment outcome according to estimates (Lambert & Barley, 2001). ...
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Article
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