Core Features
As Rogers (1959) put it, psychotherapy is the
“releasing of an already existing capacity in a po-
tentially competent individual, not the expert
manipulation of a more or less passive personality”
(p. 221). This is the so-calledgrowth potentialon
which the client-centered therapist relies so heavily.
All people possess such a potential; the trick is to
release it. In client-centered therapy, presumably
the release is effected, thus permitting one’s self-
actualizing tendencies to gain ascendance over
previously internalized factors that restricted
one’s acceptance of personal worth. The three ther-
apist characteristics that precipitate all of this are
(a) accurate, empathic understanding; (b) uncon-
ditional positive regard; and (c) genuineness or
congruence.
Empathy. To convey empathyis to transmit to
the client a sense of being understood. The
empathic therapist conveys a kind of sensitivity to
the needs, feelings, and circumstances of the client.
Exceptionally empathic therapists can assume the
attitudes of clients and, as it were, climb behind
their eyeballs and see the world as they do. The
client must come to know that the therapist is
making every effort to understand correctly.
When the client realizes this, the basis is laid for a
therapeutic relationship. Empathy can never be
total, of course—and it’s a good thing that it
can’t. A measure of objective detachment must
always be maintained; otherwise, the therapist
would have the same problems as the client. Nev-
ertheless, the empathic therapist can convey or
communicate to clients a sense of understanding
and appreciation of their needs or plight. And cli-
ents can find this attitude tremendously reassuring,
more so than any words or any exclamations of
interest. For the attitude of empathy is not stated;
it is conveyed by its very existence.
Perhaps Rogers’(1946) own words will convey
something of this attitude of understanding and
empathy:
We have come to recognize that if we
can provide understanding of the way theclient seems to himself at this moment, he
can do the rest. The therapist must lay
aside his preoccupation with diagnosis and
his diagnostic shrewdness, must discard his
tendency to make professional evaluations,
must cease his endeavors to formulate an
accurate prognosis, must give up the
temptation subtly to guide the individual,
and must concentrate on one purpose
only; that of providing deep understanding
and acceptance of the attitudes consciously
held at this moment by the client as he
explores step by step into the dangerous
areas which he has been denying to
consciousness.
This type of relationship can exist only
if the counselor is deeply and genuinely
able to adopt these attitudes. Client-
centered counseling, if it is to be effective,
cannot be a trick or a tool. It is not a subtle
way of guiding the client while pretending
to let him guide himself. To be effective, it
must be genuine. (pp. 420–421)Unconditional Positive Regard. In most rela-
tionships with parents, friends, a spouse, or others,
clients have learned that approval and acceptance
are conditional upon meeting certain stipulations.
Parents accept children if they are obedient. An
employer is accepting if employees are prompt
and efficient. Spouses require that their partners
be interested and loving. But in therapy, there
must be no conditions. Acceptance is given without
hidden clauses or subtle disclaimers.Unconditional
positive regard is nothing more and nothing less
than a respect for the client as a human being.
The therapist must lay aside all preconceived
notions and be able to care about the client, be
accepting, and above all, convey that here is some-
one who has faith and trust in the client’s ability and
strength to achieve that inner potential. These qual-
ities, coupled with a complete lack of evaluative
judgments on the part of the therapist, will go a
long way toward creating an atmosphere in which
the client is free to give up debilitating defenses and374 CHAPTER 13