Associations between therapeutic working alliance, meaningful experiences, and affective distress

We used structural equation modeling to test client meaningful experiences in counseling and the therapeutic working alliance (TWA) as predictors of affective distress, controlling for clients’ age, gender, race and ethnicity, and length of counseling relationship. In a sample of 306 adult clients engaging in counseling, we a found statistically significant relationship between client meaningful experiences in counseling and the TWA (r = 0.80, p < 0.001). There was a significant and negative direct effect from client meaningful experiences in counseling to affective distress (β = −0.45, p < 0.001). However, we did not find a significant direct effect of the TWA on affective distress (β = −0.00, p = 0.97). Implications for counselors, supervisors, and counselor educators are discussed.