Racial trauma is increasingly recognized as a critical contributor to psychological distress, yet little is known about how it operates within psychotherapy processes in systemic therapy contexts. This study examined whether therapeutic alliance functions as a relational mechanism linking racial trauma to treatment outcomes in systemic therapy. Mediation models tested the role of alliance in predicting post-treatment depression and anxiety while controlling for baseline symptoms. Contrary to expectations, therapeutic alliance did not mediate the relationship between racial trauma and outcomes. However, racial trauma demonstrated a consistent direct association with improved post-treatment symptoms, suggesting that clients reporting greater racial trauma may experience meaningful symptom reduction in relational therapy contexts.
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Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis.Psychotherapy, 55(4), 316–340. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000172
Anderson, S. R., & Johnson, L. N. (2010). A dyadic analysis of the between- and within-system alliances on distress. Family Process, 49, 220–235.