When You Don't Know Where to Turn / A Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy

by Steven J. Bartlett

* warmth of interest in the client's well-being, without emotional overinvolvement

* psychological maturity, characterized by self-acceptance, genuineness, and congruence

* a sense of acceptance toward the client: a nonjudgmental, noncritical, positive regard for the client, his separateness, and individuality

* an attitude, conveyed by the therapist's behavior and approach, that encourages positive change, independence, and freely made choices and decisions, and implicitly discourages the formation of long-term dependence of the client on the therapist

These studies also identified several attitudes that clients, regardless of the orientation of their therapists, felt were especially counterproductive in some therapists:

* lack of interest

* remoteness or distance

* excessive sympathy

In general, clients whose evaluations of therapy have been studied appear to be in agreement that the personal character, attitudes, and feelings of therapists are more important than a therapist's technique, procedures, and theoretical orientation. Therapy is an intrinsically human process, one that is especially sensitive to the human dimensions of therapists. Later we will look at objective evaluations of the effectiveness of various approaches to therapy and weigh them against the emphasis that clients place on the personal qualities of therapists.