Indicators of Client Engagement: Influences on Alcohol Treatment

his investigation explored the relationship of client engage-ment (specifically client expectations, therapeutic/working alliance, and session attendance) with treatment satisfaction and post-treatment drinking-related outcomes. Data from two outpa-tient alcohol treatment studies included information obtained from 208 client volunteers who participated in research at RIA. Hypotheses Researchers hypothesized that client expectations about how the treatment would progress, the strength of the working alliance with their counselor, and number of sessions attended would be posi-tively related to client satisfaction with treatment. Furthermore, they believed that client satisfaction would be positively related to increased number of abstinent days, decreased number of drinks per drinking day, and decreased drinking-related consequences following treatment. Findings • Positive expectations about therapy, greater session attendance, and a positive perception of the working alliance appeared to predict greater client satisfaction and, in turn, more positive drinking-related outcomes. • Forty-two percent of client satisfaction was accounted for by expectations, working alliance, and session attendance, after controlling for pretreatment drinking. Study Background The analysis included 208 clients from two different studies (82 from Study One and 126 from Study Two) who were recruited by newspaper advertisements or initial screening in RIA’s Clinical Research Center. All volunteers reported active drinking during the previous three months. Eligibility criteria included that participants be a minimum age of 18 years, meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or depen