Michael Elia
November 8, 2024
Humanistic psychotherapy, established by Carl Rogers, involves a more holistic approach to
therapy in which the main concern of the therapist is establishing strong bonds with their client
and “putting themself in their shoes.” The Rogerian approach highlights three attitudes of the
therapist’s- empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. When a clinician practices
these attitudes, an environment can be created that fosters the patients’ self-actualization or their
natural inclination to grow into the best version of themselves.
According to Pomerantz, empathy is the ability to feel another’s emotions as if they were one’s
own (2023). In other words, a clinician practicing empathy is able to put themselves into the
client’s shoes and understand how and why they feel the way they do in certain situations or
about certain topics. In the video, the therapist shows empathy in many ways. One way in which
the therapist shows his empathy towards the client is by repeating back her feelings and then
elaborating on them, showing her that not only is he listening but that he also understands and
maybe even relates to the feelings that she is having. The therapist also shows empathy by
“connecting the dots” between different feelings that the client experiences as well as previous
experiences and how her father treated her. This helps to show the client that the clinician is
invested in them and truly cares about the outcome of therapy. Both expressions of empathy help
the client to understand and align with her real self and reestablish her path to self-actualization.
Unconditional positive regard occurs when a person fully embraces another without any
judgement (Pomerantz, 2023). In therapy, when the clinician is able to put their biases and
judgements aside and support the patient’s feelings regardless of their own feelings, they have
succeeded in providing unconditional positive regard. Unconditional positive regard may be
expressed in many ways, and the therapist in the video demonstrates a few ways that it may be
established. A major factor in showing a client unconditional positive regard is body language,
and the clinician does a good job of keeping open body language and expressing care about the
clients’ feelings. This clinician also does an excellent job of validating the clients’ feelings while
he explains to her why these thought patterns occur. The topic of conditional love even comes up
when discussing the client’s relationship with her father and how he established criteria for her to
receive his love. After a discussion of the client’s problematic dating life and how it relates to her
father’s conditional love, the client even tells the therapist she feels as though he “gets her,”
showing how his unconditional positive regard strengthens the therapeutic bond between these
two and leads to favorable outcomes.
Genuineness of a therapist is crucial in establishing and maintaining therapeutic relationships.
When clients notice a therapist’s genuine feelings of caring towards them, they are more likely to
discuss their own feelings with the therapist and participate more fully in the therapy
(Pomerantz, 2023). The therapist establishes genuineness and shows he truly cares about his
client by showing true empathy and unconditional positive regard. This clinician does not just
make the client feel as though he has a personal stake in her therapy, but shows that he really
does through his attentiveness and commitment. The agreement between the therapist and client
that he understands her emotions also shows his genuine intentions toward his client, which has
helped to build a stronger relationship between the two and contributes to the client’s positive
results. The client also mentions that she feels more like her “true self,” or ideal self, when she
comes to her therapy sessions.
Rogerian psychotherapy techniques leaned away from a medical model of mental health
and into more holistic approaches that emphasize the relationship between inner emotions and
outward behaviors. Rogerian psychotherapists heavily rely on empathy, unconditional positive
regard, and genuineness to establish strong therapeutic relationships with clients and align their
real self with their ideal self. These attitudes toward therapeutic intervention were established by
the therapist in the video through many techniques including body language, repeating and
elaborating on the client’s emotions, and by being genuine in his actions and showing the client
he truly cares about her and the outcome of her therapy.
References
Pomerantz, A. M. (2023). Clinical Psychology (6th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US).
