Abstract
Literature regarding the relationship between working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment is limited. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore working alliance and therapeutic goal attainment with 75 adolescents in an inpatient, acute care, behavioral hospital in south Texas. Two canonical correlation analyses were conducted utilizing sets of subscale scores from the Working Alliance Inventory—Short Form (WAI-S) and the Crisis Stabilization Scale (CriSS). A statistically significant relationship was found between the clinician version of WAI-S subscales and the CriSS subscales, while no statistically significant relationship was found between the client version of WAI-S subscales and the CriSS subscales. A strong working alliance, specifically collaboration on tasks in counseling, is important for adolescents’ achievement of goals related to stabilization. In addition, clients may over report progress in counseling.