Marianne Welmers

Therapists’ Contributions to the Alliance 71 CHAPTER 3 the way things are going in the family” for the therapist version) are scored on a 5 point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( never ) to 5 ( always ). In the current sample, Cronbach’s alpha for the therapists’ version was .82 at T1 and .85 at T2, and for the clients’ version .89 at T1 and .92 at T2. NEO-FFI Weused theNEOFiveFactor Inventory (NEO-FFI) toassess therapists’ personality traits , which is a short version of the full length NEO-Personality Inventory, Revised (NEO- PI R; Costa, & McCrae, 1992). The questionnaire contains 60 items scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale (strongly disagree – strongly agree). Subscales contain 12 items each and measure Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Both the English and Dutch version show favorable validity and reliability (Hoekstra & De Fruyt, 2014). In the current sample, Cronbach’s alpha was .69 for Neuroticismand for Extraversion, .58 for Openness to experience, .74 for Agreeableness, and .60 for Conscientiousness. System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA-o) – Therapist version. To assess therapists’ alliance building behaviorswe analyzed videotaped sessions using the therapist version of the SOFTA-o (Friedlander et al., 2006a). This instrument has been developed to asses four dimensionsof alliance-relatedbehavior fromvideotaped familyor couple therapy sessions. Two dimensions reflect the individual alliance between a family member and the therapist similar toBordin’s (1979) classical definition of the alliance, i.e., Engagement in the Therapeutic Process, representing task and goal elements of the alliance, and Emotional Connection. The two other dimensions – Safetywithin the Therapeutic System, andShared Sense of Purpose within the Family – reflect aspects of the alliance that are unique to conjoint family treatment. The therapist version, which we used for this study, measures the therapist’s in-session contributions to these four dimensions. When using the SOFTA-o, a trained coder observes a session and notes the frequency of specific positive and negative alliance-related behaviors along the four dimensions. Some examples for positive and negative (italized hereafter) behavioral indicators include “Therapist encourages client(s) to articulate their goals for therapy” or “Therapist argues with the client(s) about the nature, purpose, or value of therapy” for Engagement , “Therapist expresses interest in the client(s) apart from the therapeutic discussion at hand” or “Therapist has hostile, sarcastic, or critical interactions with the client(s)” for Emotional Connection, “Therapist acknowledges that therapy involves taking risks or discussing private matters” or “Therapist does not attend to overt expressions of client vulnerability (e.g. crying, defensiveness)” for Safety , and “Therapist encourages clients to ask each other for their perspective” or “Therapist fails to address one client’s stated concerns by only discussing another client’s concern” for Shared Sense of Purpose.