The California Psychotherapy Alliance Scales - Short Form Patient Version (CALPAS-P-SF) is a measure of the therapeutic alliance that assesses four key aspects of the therapeutic alliance: (1) patient working capacity; (2) patient commitment; (3) working strategy consensus; and (4) therapist understanding and involvement. This abbreviated measure was adapted from the 24-item CALPAS-Patient Version, which has good reliability and validity. Respondents are asked to rate to what degree the listed client-therapist or therapy experiences (e.g., “Did you feel accepted and respected by your therapist for who you are?”) applies to their experience considering their most recent psychotherapy session on a scale from “Not at all” to “Very much so.”

Self-report

12

18+

Weekly/after each session

The CALPAS-P-SF contains 12 questions scored on a 7-point Likert scale with values from 1 (“Not at all”) to 7 (“Very much so”). Note, questions 2, 4, 7, 9, and 11 are all reverse scored (i.e., 1=”Very much so” and 7=”Not at all”). A total score is calculated by averaging the 12 question scores and can be used to track therapeutic alliance over time; higher scores are associated with higher levels of therapeutic alliance. In addition, subscale scores can be calculated for each of the four subscales by averaging their corresponding items. See table below.

*Questions are reverse-scored.

N/A

Estimated completion time: 3-5 minutes

Gaston, L. (1991). Reliability and criterion-related validity of the California Psychotherapy Alliance Scales—patient version. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3(1), 68–74. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.3.1.68

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