An examination of therapeutic alliance in Chinese medicine

Background: In psychotherapy, positive client/therapist relationships are often associated with good therapeutic outcomes. However, little research has been conducted in different health professions and the effect of therapist experience on alliance is not clear. Aims: This study aimed to examine therapeutic alliance in experienced and novice Chinese medicine practitioners and to compare these results to those reported for experienced and novice psychologists. Subjects and Settings/Outcome Measures: A total of 27 experienced and student therapists in the field of Chinese medicine and their clients completed the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI). Results: Chinese medicine clients and therapists reported higher scores on the WAI compared to psychology clients and therapists. As expected, experienced therapists scored higher on the WAI than student therapists, both when rated by themselves and by their clients. Discussion and Conclusion: These findings suggest the therapeutic alliance is relevant in the field of Chinese medicine with further research required into other professions with similar dyadic relationships. Levels of experience also appear to be an area requiring further research. The higher alliance scores found in Chinese medicine may reflect differences in the clients of this discipline and not reflect a superior ability to develop an alliance. Therapeutic alliance seems strong in clients of Chinese medicine practitioners. Further work should focus on how client variables may influence the development of the alliance.