Helping Skills, Working Alliance, and Session Depth in China: A Multilevel Analysis

Ninety-five first-year master’s-level students in China conducted three helping sessions with two volunteer clients. After every session, clients completed measures assessing trainees’ use of helping skills, working alliance, and session depth. Results of a multilevel analysis indicated that: (a) between-trainee and between-client exploration skill use was related to better working alliance reported by the client, and between-session exploration skill use was related to greater session depth; (b) between-trainee, between-client, and between-session insight skill use was related to better working alliance, but none of these components were related to session depth; and (c) between-trainee action skill use was negatively related to client report of working alliance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications from the multilevel framework, considering the Chinese cultural context