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The therapeutic alliance (TA) is a fundamental component of the therapeutic process. Over the past few decades, the importance of therapist characteristics including the TA has been emphasised in the literature (Marshall and Burton, 2010; Marshall et al., 2011). Despite the TA being identified as essential within therapeutic interventions, it appears that therapists’ understanding of the TA remains unclear as does an understanding of how to develop an effective TA particularly with men who have committed a sexual offence (Kozar and Day, 2012; Ross et al., 2008). This appears to be further complicated when working with forensic clients generally, but those who have offended sexually, more specifically. It is the aim of this paper to revisit the conceptualisation of the TA and how it may manifest practically, especially for those working with men who have committed a sexual offence. The importance of the TA for treatment engagement and outcome, client change, as well as the therapist characteristics which enhance the TA will be considered. A review of the potential obstacles to therapists working with forensic clients, such as system factors, common approaches to those who have offended, dual roles and confusion about effective therapist qualities will follow. Finally, the importance of transference and countertransference within the therapeutic relationship will also be discussed, which is seldom considered with the forensic population.
TA
TA’s origins were psychodynamic in nature, first mentioned by Freud (1912) in his work examining transference and countertransference as significant aspects for process and change in psychoanalysis. TA remained rooted in psychodynamic theory until further work, which has since been expanded upon and is currently conceptualised as the relationship between the therapist and the client. Rogers (1957) then highlighted the importance of the patient’s experience of therapist empathy and the concept of alliance as a core feature of effective intervention. Later on, Bordin (1979) defined the alliance as having “three features: an agreement on goals, an assignment of the task or a series of tasks, and the development of bonds” (p. 253). More specifically, tasks or specific activities:
[…] that need to be undertaken to facilitate change in psychological therapy; goal, the aspect of the alliance that most centrally relates to achieving therapeutic change; and bond, the development of trust and an...