Therapists' views of treatment alliance and collaboration in therapy

Therapists' views of alliance were studied using two measures: the CALPAS and the WAI. Component structures were identified in one sample (N = 251) and confirmed in a second (N = 63 therapists, 259 patients) using Perfect Congruence Analysis. Four components were found in the WAI: Shared Goals, Bond, Goal & Task Disagreement, and Therapist Confidence in Treatment. The CALPAS components were Patient Working Engagement, Patient Confidence and Commitment,and Therapist Understanding and Involvement. A joint Therapists' Confident Collaboration was identified, which had the highest correlations with therapist and patient estimates of improvement, and a moderate correlation with the Patients' Confident Collaboration factor found in Hatcher & Barends, 1996. Confident Collaboration is proposed as a key alliance concept.