Client Attachment to Therapist, Depth of In-Session Exploration, and Object Relations in Brief Psychotherapy.

Abstract

Two studies explored attachment inpsychotherapy. In the 1st study, clients(N 38) in time-limited therapy com-pleted the Experiences in Close Rela-tionships Scale as a measure of adultattachment, the Client Attachment toTherapist Scale (CATS), Working Alli-ance Inventory (WAI), and measures ofsession depth and smoothness. Consis-tent with J. Bowlby’s (1988) concept ofa secure base promoting greater explo-ration, secure attachment to therapistwas signicantly associated withgreater session depth and smoothness.Insecure adult attachment was associ-ated with insecure therapeutic attach-ment. CATS subscales predicted uniquevariance in session experience not ac-counted for by the WAI alone. The 2ndstudy was a new analysis of data origi-nally reported by B. Mallinckrodt, D. L.Gantt, and H. M. Coble (1995). Amongwomen clients (N 44) who completedthe CATS, WAI, and the Bell ObjectRelations and Reality Testing Inventory,2 CATS subscales predicted uniquevariance in object relations decits notaccounted for by the WAI alone.