Counselors’ attachment anxiety and avoidance and the congruence in clients’ and therapists’ working alliance ratings

Abstract

Objective: To determine how counselors’ attachment anxiety and avoidance related to congruence between counselors’ and clients’ Working alliance (WA) ratings. Congruence strength was defined as the regression coefficient for clients’ WA ratings predicting counselors’ WA ratings. Directional bias was defined as the difference in level between counselors’ and clients’ WA ratings. Method: Twenty-seven graduate student counselors completed an attachment measure and they and their 64 clients completed a measure of WA early in therapy. The truth-and-bias analysis was adapted to analyze the data. Results: As hypothesized counselors’ WA ratings were significantly and positively related to clients’ WA ratings. Also as hypothesized, counselors’ WA ratings were significantly lower than their clients’ WA ratings (directional bias). Increasing counselor attachment anxiety was related to increasing negative directional bias; as counselors’ attachment anxiety increased the difference between counselors and clients WA ratings became more negative. There was a significant interaction between counselor attachment anxiety and congruence strength in predicting counselor WA ratings. There was a stronger relationship between client WA ratings and counselor WA ratings for counselors low versus high in attachment anxiety. Conclusion: Counselors’ attachment anxiety is realted to their ability to accurately percieve their clients’ WA.