ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that a therapeutic alliance is at least as essential in child therapy as it is in the treatment of adults. However, this vital component of the therapeutic situation is less easily defined in the case of children. It certainly involves "cooperation and collaboration in the therapeutic process" (Moore & Fine 1990, p. 195). Coppolillo (1987) says it well when he defines the therapeutic alliance with the child as "a segment of the patient's personality that can ally itself with the therapist in the task of observing and evaluating his or her own affects, ideas, wishes, values, and convictions as they emerge or are exposed during therapy" (p. 249). Both the patient and therapist have certain responsibilities in establishing and sustaining a treatment alliance.
