ABSTRACT
In recognition of nonverbal behavior as a powerful medium of emotional communication, a substantial body of research has been dedicated to exploring its role in therapy. 1 This research mainly is about the therapist’s nonverbal behavior and its association with the therapist-client relationship. Very little is about the client’s behavior, or the interaction between the behavior of both the therapist and client. This neglect appears to be a function of an implicit model that treats the therapist as the defining element of the relationship. Although the therapist, like any other practitioner, bears greater responsibility for the quality of the relationship (DiMatteo & DiNicola, 1982), it is naive to underestimate the client’s social influence. In their dealings with clients, therapists appear to have the same social cognitive biases as layman (such as the actor-observer difference; Ross & Nisbett, 1980) so it would not be surprising if they also had the same social emotional biases as layman (such as naturally liking some behavior and not others). Professional training may modify these biases, but would not eliminate the basic human responses that therapists would have toward their clients.
