Early psychotherapeutic empathy, alliance, and client outcome: Preliminary evidence of indirect effects.
The association between psychotherapeutic empathy and client outcome is well established, yet the mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that early experiences of empathy influence outcome through the working alliance. To test this hypothesis, we used archival data collected from 56 clients (mean [M] age = 19.5 years, 83.9% female, 76.8% White) who reported mild, moderate, or severe depressive symptoms at screening and pretreatment assessments and then received five sessions of evidence-based psychotherapy. Therapists (M age = 26.0 years, 50% female, 100% White) were six students in a clinical psychology PhD program. Results of bootstrap analyses were consistent with the idea that early experiences of empathy strengthen the alliance (specifically the goals and tasks facets), which in turn facilitates improvements in depressive symptoms and psychological well-being. While preliminary, these results implicate a specific pathway of change in the treatment of depression.
['McClintock|Andrew S|AS|', 'Anderson|Timothy|T|0000-0001-7224-2728', 'Patterson|Candace L|CL|', 'Wing|Edgar H|EH|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D003863:Depression D003866:Depressive Disorder D004645:Empathy D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D011613:Psychotherapy D000078462:Therapeutic Alliance D016896:Treatment Outcome D055815:Young Adult
mechanism alliance, empathy, indirect effect