ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the research that exists regarding therapists' crying in therapy in an attempt to illuminate the trends and diversity in therapists' and clients' beliefs about and perceptions of therapists' tears. Based on client-reported rates of therapist crying during a completed course of treatment, Tritt et al. found no significant differences in crying between therapists who stated that they were delivering manual-based therapies versus non-manual-based approaches, though the authors note a trend in which those delivering non-manual-based psychotherapy may have cried more. Clinicians who identify as specialists in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) tend to report tearfulness in therapy significantly less than clinicians of any other theoretical orientation and report a more negative attitude toward therapist crying. Males cry significantly less than females in day-to-day life. It is, thus, particularly striking that the studies on therapist crying in therapy have found no significant sex differences in rates of crying.
