Differential Codevelopment of Working Alliance and Session Evaluation in Counseling Dyads

Abstract

We examined session quality measured by the session evaluation scale (SES) and the working alliance measured by WAI-SR using the DSEM model, and reported similarities and differences in the codevelopment of the working alliance and session evaluation. In addition, we examined how the dynamic patterns of codevelopment for working alliance and session evaluation are associated with counseling outcomes. Major findings include: 1) there are significant actor effects for both working alliance and session evaluation; 2) In our study, there is no difference between therapist partner effects and client partner effects, for both working alliance and session evaluation; 3) The paths for session-to-session carryover effects (actor and partner effects) were stronger for working alliance than they are for session evaluation; 4) the therapist partner effects for session quality was statistically significantly associated with therapy outcome measure by the Outcome Questionnaire 45.2. Clinical implications of those findings were discussed.