ABSTRACT
Sometimes, one of the difficult things about unconditional positive regard is the avoidance of positively reinforcing aspects and attitudes of the client that seem beneficial and growth-promoting. While it is important to value and respect the client, this is very different from praising the client or confirming the client’s thought, feeling or action. The latter involves making a judgement, is far from impartial and it is directive (because it points the client in the direction of a particular way of being/doing). To put it another way, the confirmation comes from the therapist’s frame of reference and may involve the client in succumbing to an external locus of evaluation. One of the healing processes of person-centred therapy is clients’ establishment of internal loci of evaluation; that is, an increased ability to trust their experiences and perceptions and to form judgements accordingly rather than to take on board the values and opinions of others in a way that supersedes their own.
