[Psychotherapy Trainees' Experience of Alliance-Focused Training as a Part of Psychotherapy Training - A Qualitative...

Interpersonal competencies of therapists in dealing with alliance ruptures is related to therapeutic success. Therefore, it is of particular importance to learn and to train these competencies. A method which was developed specially for this purpose is the Alliance-Focused Training (AFT). Seven psychotherapy trainees participated in the AFT. In semi-structured interviews pre- and post-AFT, they were asked about their expectations from and experiences with the training. The transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method. Before the AFT, participants showed ambivalent attitudes and fears mainly towards self-revelation. After the training, they mainly described personal development and progress in learning to deal with alliance ruptures. Video recordings of therapy sessions, role plays and training of metacommunikation skills were experienced as being helpful and practice related. The results indicate that the AFT has a great potential for improving competencies of psychotherapists.