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Psychology vocabulary · Therapy and Counselling

Therapeutic alliance

Meaning in psychology, with examples

nounCommon term

In psychology, therapeutic alliance means: The collaborative bond between therapist and client, including trust, agreement on the goals of therapy and agreement on the tasks used to reach them.

In Turkish: terapötik ittifak, terapötik ilişki, çalışma ittifakı

How it is used

One of the most researched common factors in therapy; a stronger alliance tends to predict better outcomes across approaches. Also called working alliance or therapeutic relationship. Therapists build, repair and monitor the alliance.

Example sentences

  1. A strong therapeutic alliance predicted lower dropout in the first month.

  2. After the missed sessions, we spent time repairing the therapeutic alliance.

Common collocations

  • build a therapeutic alliance
  • rupture in the alliance
  • working alliance
  • strong therapeutic alliance
  • psychotherapyTreatment of psychological problems through a structured, confidential relationship with a trained professional, mainly using conversation rather than medication.
  • clientA person who receives psychological therapy, counselling or another professional service; in therapy this word is often used instead of patient.
  • sessionOne meeting between a therapist and a client, often lasting about 50 minutes, or one period of testing in a research study.
  • counsellingProfessional talking support that helps people explore problems, feelings and choices, often focused on current life difficulties and usually shorter than long-term psychotherapy.

More terms: Therapy and Counselling

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.