Which kind of therapists' interventions discriminate between rupture and repairing sessions?

Therapeutic alliance (TA) is one of the most important active factor in the psychotherapy process and outcome (Bordin, 1979; Colli & Lingiardi, 2009; Horvarth, 1994). Even though several studies have investigated the impact of specific therapist's techniques on TA (Ackerman & Hilsenroth, 2001, 2003), few researches investigated the association between therapist's interventions and in-session collaboration level shifts. The aim of the present study is to identify the therapeutic tech-niques and elements of the psychotherapy process characterizing sessions with increasing versus decreasing trend of TA. The sample consisted of 156 audiotaped and transcripted sessions (N=156) of different therapeutic approaches. Therapeutic alliance and collaboration shifts inside sessions have been evaluated with Collaborative Interactions Scale (Colli & Lingiardi, 2009), the therapeutic interventions with the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (Blagys & Hilsenroth, 2000, 2005), the psychotherapy process with the Psychotherapy Process Q-set (Jones, 1985, 2000). Three groups, each of three independent raters, evaluated the sessions. Discriminant analysis (Garson, 2008; Barbaranelli, 2006) identified the distinctive features of the sessions with (a) increasing and (b) decreasing trends of alliance. Results showed that sessions with TA increasing trend are characterized mainly by the presence of therapist's interventions focused on the here and now of the relationship and exploration of affects. The sessions with TA decreasing trend were characterized by a stance of major rigidity of the therapist, that were more focused on manualized treatment of his/her therapeutic approaches and not on the patient's concrete experience. Data will be discussed with attention to everyday clinical practice.