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Avoiding Treatment Failures in the Anxiety Disorders pp 51–66Cite as

Therapeutic Alliance and Common Factors in Treatment

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Part of the book series: Series in Anxiety and Related Disorders ((SARD))

Abstract

Changes in therapy can result from variables unique to a particular treatment package (i.e., specific factors), as a function of variables common to a variety of treatments (i.e., nonspecific/common factors), or a combination of both specific and nonspecific ingredients (Kazdin,1979). Nonspecific (or common) treatment factors include variables that are common across different treatment modalities, which are thought to influence outcomes in therapy but are often not well linked to a mechanism of change. Due to differences in what is posited to be important to the change process by any one treatment theory, specific factors that are deemed crucial for one theoretical approach might be considered a common factor for another approach (Kazdin,1979; Wilkins,1979).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Daniella M. Halperin, Meara L. Weitzman & Michael W. Otto

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  1. Daniella M. Halperin
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  2. Meara L. Weitzman
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  3. Michael W. Otto
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Correspondence to Daniella M. Halperin .

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  1. Dept. Psychology, Boston University, Beacon St. 648, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael Otto

  2. Dept. Psychology, Boston University, Beacon St. 648, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Stefan Hofmann

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Halperin, D.M., Weitzman, M.L., Otto, M.W. (2010). Therapeutic Alliance and Common Factors in Treatment. In: Otto, M., Hofmann, S. (eds) Avoiding Treatment Failures in the Anxiety Disorders. Series in Anxiety and Related Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0612-0_4

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