ABSTRACT
General categories of therapist emotional factors impacting on psychotherapy progress consist of emotional capacity and emotional stability. Emotional capacity involves several components pertaining to emotion information processing. Of tremendous significance, emotions are social in addition to personal, and communicated in facial expressions and body language. The capacity to perceive, interpret, feel, and respond to emotions in others is crucial for empathy, which has a profound impact on psychotherapy progress. The nature of empathy is fully elucidated. Therapist emotional instability arises from overuse of immature defense mechanisms, deficient emotion regulation, excessive reactivity, and lack of confidence. Strategies to improve emotional capacity and stability are presented.
