COUNSELOR TECHNICAL ACTIVITY IN CASES WITH IMPROVING WORKING ALLIANCES AND CONTINUING-POOR WORKING ALLIANCES

Counselor technical activity in counseling dyads was examined with working alliances that were client-rated as improving (8 dyads) or as continuing poor (7 dyads). Subjects were 15 volunteer clients paired with 15 counselor trainees for 4 counseling sessions. Clients rated the strength of the working alliance for each session, and raters scored counselor technical activity on the dimensions of supportive versus challenging, distant versus involved, permissive versus controlling, thematically oriented versus concretely oriented, and here-and-now oriented versus there-and-then oriented. Counselors were relatively more challenging, thematically focused, and here-and-now oriented in the improving dyads than in the continuing-poor alliance dyads. The implications of these findings for theoretical formulations and counseling practice are discussed.