Interpersonal Change as a Mediator of the Within- and Between-Patient Alliance-Outcome Association in Two Treatments for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

OBJECTIVE: Although a better therapeutic alliance associates with treatment outcome, it may do so in different ways. For example, alliance quality may promote improvement as it shifts over time (within-patient changes); alternatively, alliance quality may also, or instead, influence outcome when generally higher or lower for some patients relative to others (between-patient differences). Although both components have been linked to patient …