Pilot test of a measure to assess therapeutic distance and its association with client attachment and corrective experience in therapy.

OBJECTIVES

The Therapeutic Distance Scale (TDS) was developed in this project to assesse clients' experiences of distance versus engagement with their therapist.

METHOD

In a survey study of 47 university clients at the "mid-stage" and 34 of these clients at termination, four TDS subscales were identified: Too Close, Too Distant, Growing Autonomy, and Growing Engagement.

RESULTS

TDS subscales were correlated as expected with working alliance and Client Attachment to Therapist. As hypothesized, (i) pre-therapy attachment Avoidance was significantly correlated with perceptions of therapists as Too Close (but not Too Distant), (ii) pre-therapy Anxiety was significantly correlated with Too Distant (but not Too Close); furthermore, among clients who developed a secure attachment to their therapist, (iii) pretherapy Avoidance was significantly correlated with Growing Engagement; however, (iv) contrary to expectations, pre-therapy anxiety was not significantly associated with Growing Autonomy.

CONCLUSIONS

The TDS is a promising measure for assessing the in-therapy corrective emotional experiences of clients with hyperactivating attachment (i.e. increasing autonomy) and deactivating attachment (i.e. increasing engagement).