Alliance-building interventions with adolescents in family therapy: A process study.

Abstract

This exploratory, process-research study identified, articulated, and measured therapist behaviors associated with improving initially poor therapistadolescent alliances in multidimensional family therapy (MDFT). A list of preliminary alliance-building interventions was generated from MDFT theory and adolescent development research. This list was then refined through the observation of videotaped MDFT sessions. A sample of five improved and five unimproved alliance cases was then drawn from a larger treatment study. Participants were primarily African American, male, adolescent substance abusers and their families. Coders rated the first three sessions of each case (30 sessions) to