Different Styles of Clients and Building of a Therapeutic Alliance

Our goal is to understand how the coconstruction of therapeutic alliance develops in the initial phase of the therapeutic process with 19 clients with different styles and a therapist. We used the Client Coping Style-Resistance and the Working Alliance Inventory. Clients seem to increase their levels of externalized features over the therapeutic process. It was also interesting to determine whether clients that dropped out of therapy had a specific profile and high levels of resistance. The levels of externalization in clients that remained in therapy increased more than the levels of internalization, and had lower levels of resistance. Relation is the dimension with an absolute agreement between the therapist and the clients.