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ABSTRACT | Chronic low back pain is a difficult condition to be treated. As some patients respond positively to treat-ment and others do not present any improvements, one can think there are others conditional factors that need to be elucidated. By means of this study, we sought to inves-tigate the association between the occurrence of the for-mation of a positive relationship between patient and thera-pist, assessed by the therapeutic alliance inventory, and the adequate recruitment of the deep abdominal muscles, as well as to verify the effect of a protocol intervention based on motor control exercises on levels of pain and disability. The recruitment of the transverse abdominal and internal oblique muscles was examined by ultrasound imaging in 12 subjects with nonspecific chronic low back pain before and after implementation of a protocol for motor contro