Working alliance formation in CBT for severe depression
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Working alliance formation in CBT for severe depression: An exploratory case series
IRAS ID
276998
Contact name
Stephen Barton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research, Innovation and Clinical Effectiveness
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 25 days
Research summary
Depression is the leading source of disability worldwide (WHO, 2017), and treatment efficacy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression has not changed drastically since its conception in the 1970s. One aspect to improve the efficacy of the treatment of depression with CBT is working alliance (WA). WA is commonly used to describe the strength and quality of the interpersonal process and relationship between client and therapist. It is a well-studied factor that influences therapeutic change and is important for therapy. Studies that examined WA in CBT have observed that within the process of CBT, there is a continual and temporal change to the alliance strength, however few have examined this on a sessional basis. In this study, we will use a novel WA questionnaire every session during clients’ treatment to find out the patterns of WA change based on treatment outcome. Specifically, to find out how WA changes from session to session for clients who responded to treatment, who did not respond to treatment, as well as clients who dropped out of their treatment. It is hoped that this research will improve our understanding of working alliance and may help to develop better treatment delivery.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0746
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion