Although much is written about the impact of deployment on nondeployed spouses (NDSs) and couple relationships, few empirical studies address this directly. Using attachment theory as a guiding framework, this study followed 32 NDSs across a military deployment. We examined the prospective association between NDSs' attachment avoidance and their response to relational challenges (assessed using both correlational and experimental designs) during a deployment. Two weeks before deployment, NDSs provided self-reports of their attachment avoidance and relationship satisfaction. During the deployment, they provided stream-of-consciousness speech samples regarding (a) the deployment and (b) their anticipated reunion with their spouse: after each speech sample they reported on their subjective anxiety. Based on random assignment, NDSs then completed either an experimenter-led "personal" or "relational" memory savoring task, reporting on their emotional state before and after the task. Two JESSICA L. BORELLI received her PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University and completed her predoctoral clinical internship at University of California, Los Angeles's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Her research program focuses on attachment relationships, emotion, parenting, and the goal of developing attachment-based interventions to enhance well-being. DAVID A. SBARRA received his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia. He is an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, where he also serves as director of Clinical Training. The focus of his research is on close relationships and health, especially the stress that follows social separations like divorce and military deployment. JONATHAN E. SNAVELY received his MA in psychology and evaluation from Claremont Graduate University, where he is now pursuing a doctorate in applied social psychology. His primary research investigates the differential impact of relational and collective self-construal on social cognition, especially in relation to prosocial behavior, health, and the meaningmaking process. DANA L. MCMAKIN received her PhD in clinical child psychology from the University of Denver and completed her predoctoral clinical internship

While research suggests that the therapeutic alliance is important in predicting outcomes of psychotherapy, relatively little is known about the development of the alliance or the moment-to-moment components of the relationship and how they combine to create an alliance, which may represent a serious limitation in existing methods of measurement. Language style matching (LSM), or the degree to which unconscious aspects of an interactional partner’s language mimic that of the other partner, is a promising, unobtrusive measure of interaction quality that could provide novel insight into the therapist–client alliance. In this article, we present a theoretical argument regarding the trajectory of therapist–client LSM across therapy sessions, as well as potential precursors and consequences of LSM. We then report on a pilot test of our hypotheses that examined how LSM, clients’ relational histories, and clients’ symptoms were associated within a therapeutic context. Using a small sample of substance dependent mothers (N = 7, 100% Caucasian women) enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of psychodynamic psychotherapy lasting 12 sessions, we examined client and therapist LSM across 4 of the 12 sessions. We found that, on average, LSM decreases over the course of treatment. Furthermore, greater client interpersonal problems prospectively predict lower early LSM in therapist–client dyads, which in turn predicts greater posttreatment psychiatric distress. Results generate questions for future research and support further investigations of LSM as one index of the quality of interactions between therapist and client.

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