Criteria for "good alliance."

The WAI is not a Standardized Measure. To the best of my knowledge, none of the alliance measures published have standardized scores, cut-offs, or interpretations of what is "good enough" alliance. The reasons for this are fairly obvious: Each source of assessment —whether client, helper or observer— applies his or her own "yardstick" in answering questions such as: "I trust/like my therapist," or " We work together on mutually agreed goals.” Trusting, liking, working together etc., do not have an objective metric. Not only individual differences, but also culture, context, and the nature of the therapy introduce important contextual variables into the equation. Therefore, if you want to compare alliance scores, they provide useful (or as useful) information to the extent that some of these parameters can be assumed to be reasonably similar across measurements. Comparing means of alliance scores obtained from groups or individuals in different circumstances and contexts is fraught with risks.