The Working Alliance: A Survey of an Outpatient Mental Health Center

Author

Jennifer Bramstedt, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Abstract

This research investigated the working alliance between therapist and client at RiverView Clinic, an outpatient mental health center. Utilizing data captured by the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR), the research posited the following:

• median total scores from therapist’s would be higher than median scores of the working alliance from clients
• clients who presented with mild to moderate concerns would have higher working alliance scores than clients who reported moderate to severe concerns
• new clients would have higher task and goal sub-scores than clients in therapy for more than fifteen sessions
• if working alliance scores reflected ruptures or strains in the working alliance, scores would increase if worked through with the client to identify the inconsistencies between their self-defeating behavior and the goals they committed to in therapy. Hypothetically, subsequent scores would then increase, possibly higher than before the rupture.

Advisor

Kimberly Zammitt

Date of Degree

2013

Language

english

Document Type

Other Capstone Project

Degree

Master of Social Work (MSW)

Department

Social Work

College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Recommended Citation

Bramstedt, J. (2013). The Working Alliance: A Survey of an Outpatient Mental Health Center [Master’s capstone project, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/848/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License