Core Conditions of Helping
Relationship
Empathetic
Understandin
g
Respect and
Immediacy Positive
Regard
Core conditions
serve as goals of
movement
through
relationship
process
Genuineness
Warmth and
Congruence
Concretenes
s
Empathetic Understanding
“I am human and let nothing human be alien to me” – Erich Fromm
Primary Level (surface
level)
Advanced Level (buried,
hidden, beyond
immediate reach)
Respect and Positive Regard
• Respect and positive regard are defined as the belief in each client’s innate worth and potential and the ability
to communicate this belief in the helping relationship
• What does it do? Respect and positive regard form an empowering process that delivers a message to clients
that they are able to take control of their lives and, with facilitative assistance from the counsellor or
therapist, foster change
“It is often communicated by what the counsellor does not do or say. In other words, by not offering to intervene
for someone, is communicating a belief in the individual’s ability to ‘do’ for himself or herself”
Baruth and Robinson (1987)
Begins with Self!
Genuineness and Congruence
• Genuineness and congruence describe the ability to be authentic in the helping relationship
• The ability to be real as opposed to artificial, to behave as one feels as opposed to playing the role of the
helper, and to be congruent in terms of actions and words are further descriptors of this core condition
• What does it do? Enhances the relationship + helps clients develop greater authenticity in their interaction
with others
Concreteness
• Concreteness is the ability not only to see the incomplete picture that clients paint with their words, but also
to communicate to clients the figures, images, and structures that will complete the picture
• What does it do? Enables the counsellor or therapist to help clients identify the distortions in the situation and
fit them together in such a way that clients are able to view the situation in a more realistic fashion
• Concreteness helps clients clarify vague issues, focus on specific topics, reduce degrees of ambiguity, and
channel their energies into more productive avenues of problem solution
Warmth
• Ability to communicate and demonstrate genuine caring and concern for clients.
• What does it do? Using this ability, counsellors and therapists convey their acceptance of clients, their desire
for clients’ well-being, and their sincere interest in finding workable solution to the problems clients present.
• The demeanor of the counsellor or therapist is often the main avenue for communicating and demonstrating
warmth.
• Often it is through either verbal or nonverbal behavior
What’s your favourite
beverage during winters? How
does it make you feel?
Immediacy
• Immediacy is the ability to deal with the here-and-and-now factors that operate within the helping
relationship.
• These factors are described as overt and covert interactions that take place between the client and the
counsellor or therapist.
• Examples: A client’s anger at a counsellor or therapist, the latter’s frustration with a client, and the feelings of
the client and counsellor or therapist for each other are all examples of factors that need to be addressed as
they occur and develop.
• What does it do? Helps gain in-sight into personal behavioral patterns that may be conducive or not
conducive to growth, and to use this insight in relationships outside the helping relationship
