Affirming the case for positive regard.

Abstract

there are moments, we imagine, in every therapist's work with virtually all their clients, in which they are moved to express their deep-seated care or support for that client. it may be a verbal or nonverbal expression, solicited or not, expanded upon or not, explicitly acknowledged by their client or not. "that was brave of you." "i do care about you." "you're handling those situations so much better now." "i'm proud of you." "you're a good person." or perhaps a smile, a laugh, or several (affirming) nods of the head. All are means of expressing positive regard for one's client. Carl rogers's remark to gloria in that famous filmed therapy session (shostrom, 1965)-"you look to me like a pretty good daughter"-may be criticized as excessively personal and even seductive (daniels, 2014), but there can be little doubt that rogers meant it as an affirmation of gloria's basic worth.it is possible to conceptualize the therapist's provision of positive regard in a rather straightforward manner, one consistent with rogers's original

Positive regard and psychotherapy outcome: A meta-analytic review.

“…Furthermore, according to clients, positive regard is not solely reflected in explicit statements of the therapist’s valuing of or caring for the client. In a study investigating client perceptions of positive regard (Suzuki & Farber, 2016), the therapist behaviors that respondents experienced as most affirming included: “My therapist offers me a new way of understanding a part of myself that I usually view as a weakness”; “My therapist shows she or he is listening through her or his body language”; “My therapist maintains eye contact with me”; “My therapist encourages me to take pride in the things I do well”; and “My therapist speaks to me in a gentle tone of voice.” A clinical case in which multiple aspects of positive regard are exhibited by the therapist can be found in the study by Farber and Suzuki (2018).…”