Facilitating Goals, Tasks, and Bonds via Identity Leadership:Understanding the Therapeutic Working Alliance as the Outcome of Social Identity Processes

The therapeutic working alliance between practitioner and client is a robust predictor of positive client outcomes in psychotherapy. In the current paper,we propose a social identityapproach to understanding this alliance, suggesting that the alliance is best conceived of asthe instantiation of shared social identification within the practitioner–client dyad. Wepropose that practitioners’ efforts to develop a shared social identity with clients—and,hence a successful working alliance—can be achieved through known processes of identityleadership. Here, practitioners work to develop a shared sense of “us” as the foundation fora working alliance (“identity entrepreneurship”), establish practices that recognize theimportance of “us” (“identity impresarioship”), work to advance the interests of “us”(“identity advancement”), and ensure that they remain an important part of the alliance byremaining a collaborative part of this “us” (“identity prototypicality”). Evidence for theutility of identity leadership in advancingmutual collaboration with clients is reviewed, anda summary of preliminary identity leadership-based strategies to foster alliance is provided.Overall,