CHANGE IN WORKING ALLIANCE, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN BRIEF THERAPY

Many interpersonal therapists use the working alliance as a vehicle fo r client change and as a corrective experience for clients to learn ne w relationship skills. Clients in brief therapy (N = 34) completed mea sures of social support and psychological symptoms at pretest and term ination and a measure of working alliance after the third session and at termination. Path analysis suggested that improvement in the workin g alliance was significantly related to improvement in social support and that improvement in social support was significantly related to sy mptom reduction. The working alliance appears to have an important ind irect connection to symptom reduction, through the mediating influence of increased support. After the effects of improved alliance were con trolled, increased support was still related to decreased symptoms; ho wever, after the effects of social support were controlled, the relati on between change in alliance and symptoms was not significant.