Psychotherapy integration and alliance: An examination across treatment outcomes

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the impact of psychotherapy integration, that is, the integration of some cognitive-behavioral (CB) techniques with psychodynamicinterpersonal (PI) techniques, on short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) treatment outcomes in a sample of 75 patients. PI and CB techniques were assessed using independent videotape ratings of therapy sessions and aspects of the alliance were determined using patient-rated scores. Several significant findings were observed. First, the direct impact of integrating CB and PI techniques on global treatment outcomes was not significant. However, the relation between integrative technique use and reliable change in global symptoms varied at different levels of the alliance facets, specific to Goals and Task Agreement (GTA) as well as Confident Collaboration (CC), where higher levels of these alliance facets were related to better outcomes. GTA as well as CC aspects of the alliance also each independently predicted patient change in a broad range of patient functioning. Implications are discussed for clinicians, clinics, and psychotherapy research, alike.