{"id":6564,"date":"2023-04-20T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T01:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/?p=6564"},"modified":"2025-09-02T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:32:06","slug":"br-wai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/br-wai\/","title":{"rendered":"BR-WAI | Brief Revised Working Alliance Inventory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brief Revised Working Alliance Inventory (BR-WAI)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Recommended\u00a0frequency: Every 4 weeks
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Download Sample<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Research shows that the client-clinician relationship (AKA therapeutic alliance), is the most important predictor of positive outcomes in treatment (Fl\u00fcckiger, Del Re, Wampold, & Horvath, 2018). The concept has been researched and theorized for years\u2014 starting with Freud in 1912\u2014 when it was recognized that consistent, measurable factors of therapeutic relationships play a significant role in the effectiveness of treatment, regardless of the type of treatment or approach (Bordin, 1989;\u00a0Frank, 1961;\u00a0Horvath & Symonds, 1991;\u00a0Rosenzweig, 1936;\u00a0Wampold & Imel, 2015). Measuring therapeutic alliance<\/a> is one of the most reliable ways to determine the strength of client-clinician bond, and it allows the clinician to identify how comfortable their client is in sharing their thoughts, experiences, and goals with them throughout care. Based on the results, a client and clinician will have the knowledge and tools necessary to work together to improve their therapeutic bond and comfort.<\/p>\n

About the Measure<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The original Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) was developed by Dr. Adam Horvath in 1981. The source article has been cited more than 830 times, the measure has been translated into more than 18 languages, and a recent meta analysis reported its use in 80 of 201 studies since 1973 that associated psychotherapy outcome with the working alliance (more than the next three most frequently used measures combined) (Horvath, Del Re, Fluckiger, & Symonds, 2011). Over the past quarter-century, the WAI emerged as the leading instrument to assess the quality of the psychotherapy relationship, and has been at the forefront of research, establishing the working alliance as one of the most important factors in psychotherapy research (Mallinckrodt & Tekie).<\/p>\n

The Brief Revised Working Alliance Inventory (BR-WAI) is a recently refined therapeutic alliance assessment, designed to tackle some of the challenges presented by the WAI. This 16 item measure (vs. 36 items on the WAI) features 8 questions on \u2018Bonds\u2019 and 8 questions on \u2018Tasks and Goals\u2019. The BR-WAI is often viewed as more practical than the WAI within therapeutic settings, where the brevity of the assessment helps to engage clients and ensure completion, while still addressing the most important aspects of the therapeutic relationship. It was developed by applying the Rasch model of item response theory (IRT)<\/a> to maximize the amount of information that can be collected and the accuracy of the results overall. A 5-point likert scale was used instead of the 7-point scale in the WAI, which allows for more precise distinction between response options (ranging from \u2018strongly agree\u2019 to \u2018strongly disagree\u2019) and higher accuracy in the clients response and the ability for a clinician to interpret the results.<\/p>\n

The BR-WAI looks at three foundational components of the therapeutic relationship:<\/p>\n