Marianne Welmers

Abstract Background Alliance is a robust contributor to the outcome of adult, youth, and family therapy, but little is known about therapists’ contributions to the alliance in conjoint family treatment. Methods We investigated the predictive value of therapists’ personality, clinical experience and observed alliance building behaviors for mid-treatment alliance as reported by therapists and family members. Participants were 77 parents and 21 youth from 57 families receiving home-based family treatment from 33 therapists. Results Therapist openness to experience and agreeableness as well as therapists’ in-session engagement and emotional connection behaviors predicted more positive therapists’ and family members’ reports of the alliance. Therapist neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness predicted more negative alliance-reports. In- session safety behaviors also predicted more negative alliance-reports, but this finding was only significant for therapists’ and not family members’ reports of the alliance. Clinical experience did not predict quality of alliances. Conclusions We conclude that training and supervision of family therapists could benefit from focusing on emotional connection with and active engagement of family members in treatment, and from increasing self-awareness of the impact of their personality on alliances with family members.