Working alliance after transferring from one therapist to another in a training clinic: Influence of therapist attachment style.

This study investigated how client working alliance changed after transferring from one therapist to another: (a) When pre- and post-transfer therapists' attachment anxiety/avoidance were congruently higher or lower and (b) when the pretransfer therapists' attachment anxiety/avoidance were more or less discrepant from the posttransfer therapists. A Tau- U analysis and a multilevel polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used to analyze longitudinal data about 23 transferred clients in open-ended psychodynamic psychotherapy with doctoral-level therapist trainees ( n = 29). When first and second therapists' attachment anxiety/avoidance levels were congruent, the higher the two therapists' attachment anxiety and avoidance levels were, the greater was the decrement in clients' ratings of working alliance after transfers. When first and second therapists' attachment anxiety/avoidance levels were discrepant from each other, the more the first and second therapists' attachment were different from each other in terms of anxiety, the greater decrement in clients' ratings of working alliance there was after transfers. Meanwhile, the more the two therapists' attachment avoidance levels were different from each other, the less decrement in clients' ratings of working alliance there was after transfers. Therefore, the attachment orientations of the pre- and post-transfer therapists combined to influence client working alliance after transfers. Limitations and implications of the present research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).