ABSTRACT
Within counseling psychology there appears to be reason able consistency in the belief that the therapist-client relationship is a central component in the process of fostering therapeutic change (Gelso & Carter, 1985; Sexton & Whiston, 1994). At the same time, the role it plays in fostering change is not so uniformly agreed on. Historically it has been a common view among counseling psychologists that therapeutic change occurs in therapy after a stable therapeutic relationship is established with a client-a relationship characterized by warmth, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard (Horvath & Greenberg, 1994; Patterson, 1974; Rogers, 1951, 1957). An interactional perspective on counseling (e.g., Claibom & Lichtenberg, 1989; Strong & Claibom, 1982) changes the order of these events, proposing that therapeutic change is generated in the process of forming the relationship. Strong (1982) and Strong and Claibom (1982) have suggested that when a therapist and client meet initially, they begin their encounter with individual notions of what their relationship should be like. As they interact, each maneuvers to influence the other
to respond in a manner consistent with his or her definition of the relationship, and it is in this process of defining their relationship that therapeutic change occurs.
