[Assessment of the therapeutic alliance: reliability and validity of the Working Alliance Inventory].

OBJECTIVE

Recent trends in psychotherapy research indicate a growing interest on the conceptualization and assessment of the therapeutic alliance. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Turkish Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) (Horvath and Greenberg, 1989) Therapist and Client Forms.

METHOD

In the first phase of the study, the scale was presented to 5 judges, representing psychoanalytic, gestalt, and cognitive behavioral approaches, who then placed the subscale's items within the intended theoretical construct with a high degree of consensus. In the second phase, Therapists (N=21), from different theoretical traditions, filled out the WAI (Therapist Form) based on their sessions with their three patients (N=63). Patients also completed the WAI (Client Form). These evaluations by therapists and patients have been carried out for the third or following sessions.

RESULTS

The internal validity of the scale was alpha = .96 for the Therapist Form and alpha = .90 for the Client Form. Factors analysis, conducted only for the Client Form, revealed that 3 factors were loaded in congruence with the original WAI. Considering the limited number of therapists participated in the study, factor analysis could not be conducted for the Therapist Form.

CONCLUSION

As preliminary evidence, our findings suggest that the validity and reliability of the Turkish WAI were at acceptable levels for clinical and research settings.