Behavioral couples therapy with alcoholic men and their intimate partners: The comparative effectiveness of bachelor's- and master's-level counselors

The purpose of this study was to examine whether bachelor's-level counselors (N = 4) as compared to master's-level counselors (N = 4) could deliver manualized behavioral couples therapy (BCT) to alcoholic men and their intimate partners (N = 48) with equal compliance and achieve comparable patient outcomes. Male alcoholic patients, being treated in an outpatient program, and their intimate partners were randomly assigned to receive BCT from either a bachelor's-level or a master's-level counselor. Equivalency testing revealed that, in comparison to master's-level counselors, bachelor's-level counselors were equivalent in terms of adherence ratings to a BCT treatment manual, but were rated lower in terms of competence of treatment delivery. However, partners who received BCT from the bachelor's- and master's-level counselors reported equivalent levels of (a) satisfaction with treatment, (b) marital happiness during treatment, and (c) dyadic adjustment and percentage of days abstinent at posttreatment, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-up.