therapeutic alliance
a cooperative working relationship between client and therapist, considered by many to be an essential aspect of successful therapy. Derived from the concept of the psychoanalytic working alliance, the therapeutic alliance comprises bonds, goals, and tasks. Bonds are constituted by the core conditions of therapy, the client’s attitude toward the therapist, and the therapist’s style of relating to the client; goals are the mutually negotiated, understood, agreed upon, and regularly reviewed aims of the therapy; and tasks are the activities carried out by both client and therapist. See therapist–patient relationship. [concept developed by U.S. psychologist Edward S. Bordin (1913–1992)]