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Working Alliance Inventory – Short Form (WAI-S)3

Working Alliance Inventory – Short Form (WAI-S) Test

Understand how well therapist and client align on goals, tasks, and trust in just 3 minutes. This 11 item check-in spots gaps early and supports stronger, more effective sessions.

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Questions: 113 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

24,526 views

1,777 completions

1,470 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

25/77

Therapeutic Alliance (TA)

Assesses the quality of the client–therapist working relationship across agreement on goals, collaboration on tasks, and emotional bond.

Low alliance

Moderate alliance

Strong alliance

11 – 33: Low alliance | 34 – 55: Moderate alliance | 56 – 77: Strong alliance

A score of 25 falls in the Low alliance range, suggesting weaker agreement on goals/tasks or a less established bond at this time.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Practicing psychotherapists

44%OF USERS

Therapists use it to quickly check how aligned they are with a client on goals, tasks, and trust and to spot issues early.

Therapy clients

33%OF USERS

Clients take it to express how understood and supported they feel and whether the work in sessions matches their expectations.

Supervisors and clinic leads

23%OF USERS

Supervisors or team leads use it to monitor alliance quality across cases and guide corrective feedback or treatment planning.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Therapeutic Alliance Scale (TAS)

Average

Normal range

29.7 — 50.3

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

This questionnaire consists of a set of statements that describe, in various ways, thoughts and feelings that may arise in relation to a psychotherapist (counselor). When reading each statement, mentally insert the name of the therapist (counselor) in place of the underlined blank. Below each statement is a response scale with seven options. Respond quickly, without overthinking. Select the first response that comes to mind. The goal is to capture the initial reaction.

- Never
- Very rarely
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Always
- Never
- Very rarely
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Always
- Never
- Very rarely
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Always

These are 3 of the 11 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Method for Measuring the Psychotherapeutic Alliance, WAI-S Test

Working Alliance Inventory – Short Form (WAI-S) Test - Symptoms and Signs

psychotherapy

This measure is used in psychotherapy to assess the quality of the collaborative relationship between therapist and client. The Working Alliance Inventory - Short Form (WAI-S) provides a brief, structured appraisal of key alliance components, including agreement on goals, agreement on tasks, and the relational bond.

Developed by Adam O. Horvath and Leslie S. Greenberg, it consists of 11 items and typically takes about 3 minutes to complete. It may be administered to support clinical monitoring over the course of treatment and to guide discussion when perceptions of the working relationship appear discrepant. In routine practice, the Working Alliance Inventory - Short Form (WAI-S) can be used to help identify alliance strengths and potential barriers to engagement that may warrant clarification or intervention.

Author: Adam O. Horvath, Leslie S. Greenberg

Literature: Bordin, E. S. The generalizability of the psychoanalytic concept of the working alliance. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice. 1979.; Tracey, T. J., & Kokotovic, A. M. Factor structure of the Working Alliance Inventory. Psychological Assessment. 1989.; Horvath, A. O., & Greenberg, L. S. Development and validation of the Working Alliance Inventory. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 1989.