Attachment and Working Alliance in Emotionally-Focused Individual Therapy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between attachment and the working alliance in Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), within a population experiencing mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety. Baseline, midpoint, and post self-report measures of attachment and working alliance were collected from a sample of 36 individuals over 12 to 17 sessions of EFIT and used in correlational and regression analysis. Significant negative correlations were found between attachment avoidance and different factors of working alliance at multiple timepoints, and none with attachment anxiety. Pre-treatment attachment insecurity does not predict weaker working alliances as anticipated. Pre-to-post change in attachment anxiety was significant but was not attributed to the working alliance. Pre-to-post change in attachment avoidance was non-significant but was moderated by the task agreement factor of the working alliance, which accounted for 16% of change in avoidance.